Hollow
A Naruto Fanfic
By
EvilFuzzy9
"Those that break the rules and regulations are scum. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum! If I'm going to be called scum either way, I'd rather break the rules! And if that's not being a proper shinobi, then I'll destroy that idea!"
- Obito Uchiha
A/N: The initial idea for this was inspired by chapter 597 of the manga. Originally, I'd wanted this to be a straight, angsty ObitTobi oneshot since that theory has been gaining slightly more plausibility of late, but apparently my muses had other ideas.
His name was Obito Uchiha. At the time of his last physical, he was recorded as being 154.2 centimeters tall, and weighing 44.5 kilograms. He was blood type O.
During an A-rank sabotage mission, he was crushed in a cave-in caused by enemy ninjutsu after activating his sharingan in battle. His age at the time of death was thirteen. He held the rank of chūnin.
That was all the information the Uchiha put into the clan's register regarding him, when they were given the news of his death. They did not mourn him in any particular fashion, and they did not mark his passing with anything more than a tally in the book of the dead and small epitaph on a communal memorial outside the clan's shrine.
"Obito Uchiha was a shinobi to end. He gave his life to ensure the success of his mission."
That was all they wrote. And that was all he would be remembered by, after everyone who had known him personally eventually passed on, and all memories of his life faded away.
A single line on a tablet alongside countless others. It was a modest, austere tribute not at all befitting the loud, idealistic, and boisterous lad. But it was more than he deserved, some muttered in the dark corners of the Uchiha district. For that boy, who had been held as the lowliest and least talented of his generation, to be memorialized alongside the best and brightest of their clan, was simply too much for some.
Among some factions within the Uchiha, Obito was considered something even worse than a weakling or a disgrace – they saw him as a traitor. In the traditions of the Uchiha clan, to give one's eyes to another was an act of ultimate weakness – it was why, in all the generations of their clan to achieve the mangekyō sharingan, no individual has ever thought to simply trade eyes with a sibling. Such a thing would be unthinkable to the members of that proud clan.
And to them, Obito had done even worse than simply giving away his eye – he had given it to an Outsider. This had outraged even the most liberal members of the clan, and they had naturally sought to demand the return of Obito's eye.
So one day, after the fateful Battle of Kannabi Pass, a group of twenty seasoned Uchiha shinobi had cornered young Kakashi Hatake in an alley after sunset and demanded he return what belonged to their clan, saying that the sharingan was the sign that one was an Uchiha, and thus only rightful Uchiha could bear it.
"Obito..." the boy had murmured coldly in response, tilting up the headband he recently taken to slanting over the eye that had, in the clan's eyes, been all but stolen, "... you call yourselves Uchiha, and yet you mocked one of your own, dismissing him as weak... This eye of his remembers everything he has ever seen. This sharingan eye."
He then leveled the group of veteran ninja with a terrifying glare, the unmistakeable killing intent of the late White Fang of Konoha bearing down upon them like a physical weight laid out on their shoulders. All but three of the Uchiha ninja fell to their knees, and those who still stood had all reflexively activated their sharingan.
"You claimed he was unfit to be counted among your number, and yet..." he continued, not once letting up on his sakki, the single comma of his borrowed sharingan revolving furiously around the pupil, "...this eye proves otherwise. So tell me... how many of you can claim that?"
The twenty Uchiha snarled and leapt to their feet, most of their number leaping activating their sharingan eyes and reaching for their weapons.
"Don't insult us, thief!" one, a slender young woman with curly brown hair, cried angrily. "That eye belongs to the Uchiha! That fool did not deserve it! He — !"
She was then immediately cut off by the touch of a kunai's tip to her throat. Before her, in the midst of their mob, stood the Hatake boy, utterly nonchalant about being surrounded, having moved to strike before any of them could even see it. The eye with Obito's sharingan was closed, and his unscarred eye was glaring death.
"Say that again," the boy hissed dangerously, clearly beyond reasoning now, "I dare you."
One of the others, incensed by the gall of such an act, jumped Kakashi from behind, kunai poised to be buried in the back of the boy's skull. The others then soon followed suit, attacking Kakashi all at once.
Not one of them escaped the future Copy Ninja's wrath.
"Sorry I'm late, Obito..." Kakashi said when he finally reached the memorial stone in the training grounds. It was dark out, the sun having long since set.
Even with only the light of the stars to go by, it was easy to see that the boy was in bad shape, bleeding from numerous cuts with several bruises forming on his face. Still, his visible eye was crinkled up in a smile, however hollow, forever hollow, as he spoke.
"...but I guess I just got lost on the road of life."
TTFN and R&R!