Homesickness
~R#^&@*IN &^????^&&*ISO%&BU???~__
Deep in the consciousness of a young girl rested what humans would call a “Tailed Beast”. However, they preferred to be called by the name Isobu as it was what their father had named them centuries ago. Isobu missed those times they spent with their siblings and their father. They missed Asura and Indra before the fighting came. Isobu always hated fighting, Kurama told them it was because they were weak-willed. While their father said it was because they were too kindhearted.
In the end, maybe they were both right because Isobu didn’t do anything and stood as a bystander as his family fell apart, and then allowed themself to be sealed. Isobu was the only one of his siblings who wasn’t all that upset to be sealed away in the beginning because then they wouldn't have to fight anyone and could just give a little bit of their chakra to their jailer in exchange for being allowed to sleep to dream of happier times. Despite not minding being sealed, Isobu never once talked to their jailer or got to know them. Why would they? Their jailer only ever needed their power not to talk with them and that was fine with Isobu.
All that changed when one day Isobu slowly drifted back to awareness at the sensation of their prison weakening. A quick show that they weren’t going to be moved to another human but rather that their jailer was dying prematurely.
“That’s fine, I’ll just reform and go sleep in the ocean once I do,” Isobu thought, ready to go back to sleep when they felt a familiar chakra signature reach their senses. For a brief moment, all Isobu could think was Indra and they were awake searching for what they had sensed. Isobu saw a smaller human with that familiar signature but the more he looked the more they noticed.
At first glance the Chakra had felt like Indra’s but at the same time not. This tiny human in front of Isobu was not his once human brother but a descendant. Isobu, of course, had known that Asura and Indra had children but he had never gotten the chance to meet them or their descendants so it was nice seeing family. Isobu's pleasant discovery was cut short when they noticed that Indra’s descendant chakra was slowly growing more and more furious by the second. The descendant began to slaughter all the humans around until none were left. Then the tiny human- no the child stumbled forward and collapsed in front of the dying body of their jailer. Words fell out of their lips in a jumbled mess and their chakra signature was so full of grief, the anger that had been there earlier was gone leaving devastation of emotions in its wake. Isobu suddenly understood what had happened, their jailer was important to this child of Indra’s and if their jailer died then the child would go the same path as Indra. Isobu could already see their chakra slowly corrupting and in a moment Isobu decided they couldn’t fail them like isobu had failed their predecessor.
It was simple to allow their chakra to leak out; after all, the seal was the worst one they had ever been put into. If they truly wanted to it wouldn’t take much to escape but that wasn’t their goal so Isobu focused and a few moments passed before their jailer wounds were healed like they had never been there before. Isobu felt accomplished when they saw the descendant chakra change into one of pure joy and relief.
They were going to go back to sleep before the child began to talk not to their jailer, but to THEM. It made them wary but all they asked was to give their jailer a chance. The child was odd yet…it was nostalgic and reminiscent of Indra before his fall. That nostalgia was the only reason why they allowed their jailer to be able to find them in their mindscape and Indra’s descendant was right. Their jailer- No- Rin Noraha, truly was different from any human they had met.
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__~OBITO~__
“Finally, no more paperwork…” Obito could have cried tears of joy now that he no longer had the responsibility of taking care of the Akatsuki. Ever since the Hanzo deaths, more and more people joined their side and it just so happened that those people were actually skilled individuals that obito didn’t have to teach. This meant that over the course of the next few months, Obito slowly gave away the workload he had to trustworthy Shinobi (that he may have interrogated the hell out of) until he was finally free. Not only that but the Akatsuki trio showed that they had learned what they needed and no longer required Obito’s help. Before he knew it the Akatsuki was fully reformed and was finally able to function like an actual organization without the uchiha’s help. Honestly watching Akatsuki change from a small ragtag team to a full almost government-like agency made obito feel like a proud parent. Obito’s momentary joy was cut off when a familiar being sported from the floor like a weird-looking plant.
“Swirly, how was the mission?” Obito could practically see the white creature pouting despite the fact it had no face.
“It was super boring Obito-kun…SUPER boring…” Obito winced knowing full well how impatient Swirly was and stakeout missions weren’t their favorite.
“I know, I’m sorry but I have to finish some stuff up so I won’t be stuck doing paperwork anymore but also needed to watch Danzo” The uchiha had asked his friend for a favor, to watch Danzo for anything suspicious since they could trust swirly and their stealth skills were cheat-like. “Except for being boring, did anything happen with Danzo?” Swiry shook his head.
“No, nothing except that Danzo is trying to create a new seal type. Is that interesting?” Obito's eyes widened and almost desperately asked.
“Yes, that is very interesting. Can you tell what the seal was?” Swirly puffed his chest out in pride
“Of course, Madara-sama taught me! And don’t you remember that it was Swirly who removed your heart seal?” Obito cringed at the image but nodded.
“Yes, I do. Now please, what was the seal?”
“It is a seal for controlling and for locating however it is so poorly done! Swirly could have done better with no eyes!” Obito sweatdropped.
“Swirly…you have no eyes…”
“Exactly! Swirlye's point is proven” Obito chuckled for a brief moment before focusing on the new information given to him. It made sense that Danzo was making a new seal, being the controlling bastard he was, but why would he add a location-
Obito's eyes widened and he almost felt stupid when he remembered that he had taken out three members of Danzo ROOT. His organization being so small at the current moment and his members gone without a trance anyone would make any sensible shinobi paranoid. Obito groaned because now he knew why Danzo was being so cautious and made it so hard to gather any incriminating evidence against him! It was all Obito's fault that he had activated the old man’s guard.
“Obito-kun? Do I have to go spying again?” Obito shook his head feeling disappointed that his plans turned to dust in seconds.
“No, there would be no point, right now Danzo realized that someone was either onto him or watching him so he wouldn’t do anything bad for a while if he is as smart as I know he is” Obito knew one thing about Danzo and that was is that the older male was very patient and he wouldn’t do anything careless. Swirly perks up
“Does that mean I am done?” Obito smiles and nods.
“Yup, you are relieved from your duty to go back to exploring or whatever” The creature cheers and begins to sink into the floor “Make sure you aren’t caught swirly!”
“I won’t! Bye bye!” His friend replies before he is gone to god knows where but so long as they stay out of sight and don’t cause trouble the uchiha could care less. Obito sighs, staring at the floor for a moment unsure what to do. He wanted to gather data about Danzo ROOT but when he had tried all the documents were gone. On the other hand, if he used the ROOT members then Danzo had multiple ways to either kill the members before they could confess or make them appear as an enemy spy that had infiltrated the hidden leaf. What also didn’t help was the almost blind trust the third Hokage had with his once teammate so anything said against him was shut down because “Danzo wouldn’t do that.” or even “Are you sure it wasn’t a misunderstanding?”
“Why is everything so conflicted?” Obito threw himself onto a nearby couch and stared up at the ceiling feeling exhausted all of a sudden. He had thought that he was finally done…that he could finally…go home. He was to get back to hanging out with Rin, training with Sakumo, cuddling with his brothers, hell he wouldn't even mind going back to constantly fighting with kakashi. He just wanted to be back with his friends…his family…his…precious people. However, he couldn’t go back yet after all he was doing all this for them, to keep them safe, even if it hurt he would not do what it took. “No rest for the wicked…I guess” The Uchiha knew that he was 16 years old but at the moment he felt so much older and knowing that only he knew, knowing what would happen if he failed to change it, only made the weight in his chest heavier.
Obito wasn't sure how long he sat there before there was a knock at the door of his office-yet not. He could tell it was Nagato and Konan but right now he just wanted to be left alone so he ignored it in hopes of them leaving. The duo had either not gotten the hint or simply didn’t care but knowing them it was probably the former. Konan immediately noticed him lying on the couch and frowned.
“Is Tobi sleeping? Here? Didn’t Yahiko give him his room?” She whispered curiously to her teammate. After all, the obito mask hid his face quite well and that was the point.
“Yeah, but he barely if at all uses it,” Nagato whispered back. The two proceeded to stare at the Uchiha for a moment. “Should we leave?” Nagato questioned and obito was tempted to continue pretending to be asleep before finally deciding to simply get this over with.
“No, it’s fine. What do you need?” The twin yelps he was given would have been hilarious under normal circumstances but right now Obito was too done with everything to care.
“Ah- Sorry for disturbing you Tobi, but we have an issue that has arisen and we needed your input” Konan replied apologetically. The black-haired male raised an eyebrow.
“You came to me with an issue about the Akatsuki even though I am not a leader or even a member? But rather an outsider?” After all, Obito had helped but he had no obligation to do so anymore the duo knew it if their expressions were anything to go by. “You know what? Just show me the issue but you three will handle the solution understood?” Konan nodded looking a bit ashamed and she handed him the papers but Obito stopped her. “No…just no more paperwork just summarize it for me”
“Well, it appears that Hanzo has been heavily taxing the citizens to fund his military making it pretty strong but failed to provide or help the people. We don’t have enough money to help.” Obito hummed
“And taxes?” This time Nagato explained.
“We thought about it, however, the people have no money due to the extreme taxes in the past, and doing so will only harm them more.”
“So basically we need money to fix Amegakure but we have no money and can’t get any money to fix the village and tax and get money. It is a paradox” Konan added bitterly and Obito understood. After all, you just found out that all your efforts to fix your home have been halted because you have no way to fix it.
“What about trade? Or exchange of goods with other villages?” Obito asked and Konan shook her head.
“We can’t for a few reasons first, we have no goods to sell. We can barely support ourselves, we have nothing to sell, second our reputation in war due to Hanzo leaving us in relatively bad relations so no one wishes to trade with us. Then lastly even if we had goods to sell we have nothing unique that other villages would want from us. All our efforts were spent on advancing our army that we have no special goods to offer.” Obito leaned back and crossed his arms thinking.
“Money…army…military…money…unique to them…military…mercenary-'' Obito's eyes flew open as the idea hit him like a Rasengan to the head.
“What about using our armies?” Nagato blinked
“Ummm what? Can you elaborate tobi” Obito rolled his eyes but explained.
“Well ever since the war began there has been a lot of missing-nin or not enough manpower for missions so what we do is give out our army-like mercenaries and get paid for either capturing rouge shinobi or completing missions that other villages have not been able to do since the war began like escort missions?” Konan's eyes also went wide.
“That might work…I need to go talk with Yahiko about this. Come Nagato- thank you Tobi bye-” Then the duo was gone and the uchiha was left alone once again. The event made Obito realize that the Akatsuki still needed him yet Obito wanted to go home.
“Then, why don’t I?” Obito may not be able to go home yet but…that didn’t mean he couldn't visit to see how the village is with his own eyes.