"This is the place!"
Obito grinned exuberantly as his two best friends looked over at the sight of their future haunted house.
"Cool right?" He asked zestfully, gesturing broadly to the dilapidated home at the end of the driveway they stood in.
One of Obito's friends, Kakashi, brushed a mass of dead overgrowth away with his foot. "We're going to have to work hard to make this place accessible to everyone. Right now it's huge mess."
Obito shrugged, not understanding Kakashi's concerns with fixing up the estate. Wasn't the goal of making a haunted house to have it look shabby and unkempt? The prospect of one being neatly-kept wasn't a particularly appealing, but Obito wasn't willing to argue. The trio had a grand total of two weeks to put together a decent house of horrors, and feuding amongst each other wasn't going to get them anywhere. Letting Kakashi do some exterior maintenance seemed like an okay trade-off for real progress.
"All of that is nice but maybe first we should check the place out? Before doing any major alterations?" Obito's other friend, Rin, suggested. For the best really. Obito and Kakashi could get as caught up in their plans as they wanted but nothing was going to get done if they didn't at least get a look at the inside.
Obito shrugged playfully "Oh yeah, I almost forgot." He said with a slight chortle.
As another vine wrapped vexingly around his ankle, Obito began to understand what Kakashi meant when he said they'd need to clean up the outside before letting people come. All three of them were having unexpected difficulties climbing up the numerous stairs leading to the front porch.
Rin reached the ancient house first, frowning at the padlock denying them entrance.
"Uh, guys!" She called to the two young men who were slowly wading their way through the undergrowth. "It's locked."
"Say no more. Kushina warned me about this before we came so," Obito declared pausing for dramatic effect and letting his tool-filled backpack fall at his side. He rifled through it before pulling out a dirt-caked hammer.
"I brought a hammer." Obito finished with a sly grin.
"Impressive foresight Obito, I didn't expect you to think of how we'd get in," Kakashi commented, crossing his arms over his chest.
Obito sighed to himself, not sure how to take what Kakashi said. He tended to push Obito's buttons a lot, so deciphering the meaning behind Kakashi's words wasn't always easy.
Approaching the door, Obito worked the padlock around in his hand, it was rusted out. Completely rusted out. If there was a point in which metal ceased to be metal, the padlock was undoubtedly there. The Uchiha lifted his hammer to strike the padlock but an unexplainable pang of dread overwhelmed him, causing him to lower the hammer slowly, hands starting to tremble. His grip tightened around it despite the terror radiating throughout him.
"I-I don't think I- we should be breaking in." Obito stuttered, his words no longer feeling as if they're his own like some divine force puppeteered him.
Rin raised an eyebrow, puzzled at the behavior of her friend. Of all people to lose their nerve while trying to get into an old house, Obito was not the one she would guess. He hadn't always been on the right side of the law after all. Technically they did have permission to use this house. But could the memories of his past life be giving him cold feet?
"If you don't want to, I'm fine with doing it myself," She offered, preparing herself for a no. Which she got.
Obito gripped the hammer tightly and struck the lock against all vague fears of what would happen if he did so. With every hit against the rusty metal, his heart pounded harder and harder, joined by the growing frustration of a terror he didn't understand. After two or three strikes, the frustration flared in him. His friends were watching him ― no, scrutinizing him. They were probably laughing their asses off inside.
That stupid Obito is way in over his head. He's wasting his time with his pet projects. It's not like anyone's going to come to a haunted house ran by a scummy delinquent.
He constricted the hammer until his hand turned white. The cracking padlock clanged with Obito's ever intensifying hits, and his friends noticed immediately that he was boiling over.
"Uh, you okay Obito?" Kakashi said, puzzled by Obito anger.
"I'm fine, just fucking dandy." The Uchiha snapped, delivering one last blow to the rusting padlock before it gave way and fell to his feet. As the sound of the final blow resonated through the air like a tolling bell, his friends stared wide-eyed and shocked at his behavior. Reflecting the same disbelief in his own expression, Obito picked up the lock, slowly coming to understand what he had done. Well, understanding what happened wasn't hard. Understanding why, on the other hand, was impossible for him. The emotions he'd felt and the thoughts he'd experience dissipated with the breaking of the lock
"Er, sorry about that guys… I don't know what came over me." Obito explained guiltily. He wanted to write it off as just a weird mood swing, and yet he couldn't quite get himself to believe that.
"Don't worry, it happens sometimes," Rin reassured him.
Kakashi nodded. "You broke the lock, that's all that matters." He stepped away from the door. "Will you do the honors?"
Obito cracked a smile, still left with an eerie sense his outburst wasn't a natural thing. Regardless, he pulled the intricately carved door open to find…
A completely blacked room. As in, the room seemed to absorb light like a black hole.
The second he unassumingly walked through the door, his senses completely deadened.
Obito regained sensation in the middle of a twilight-filled forest. That in itself was confusing as hell, seeing there wasn't supposed to be a forest around for miles, let alone one one this dense. Yet, his location wasn't what alarmed him the most.
What did, was that he had the sense he may or may not be the same person he was.
He felt like Obito, just not the same Obito. Why could that be?
The Uchiha ran his hands up and down his legs. Fur... Hooves… He had them both. At least the top half of his body was A-okay.
Desperately, he pushed himself up onto his bony knees and got himself to stand up from there. Far in the rapidly dimming forest, he faintly saw movement- almost human looking movement.
"Hey!" He shouted into the creeping darkness. "Is anyone there?"
"Obito?" A familiar feminine voice called back. The silhouette of a person vanished, leaving Obito baffled.
Helplessly he stood, trying to find the shape again, only to see a smaller, faster one darting straight at him.
Obito tried unsuccessfully to back up, attempting to gain some distance and falling flat on his ass instead. Damn new and unusual musculature.
Now much clearer, the cat silhouette perched on a fallen tree in front up Obito. It began to change, growing into a much more human shape. Then it jumped down right in front of him.
"There you are. Kakashi and I have been trying to find you for ten minutes now."
It was… Rin? From the little he could see, it was. Sorta. Her form was similar to his, half cat- mountain lion- and half human.
"R-right. I've been here the whole time." He stammered, putting his hand to his head out of habit and finding two bony protrusions he assumed were horns that obviously had not been there before. Okay, the constant reminders he hadn't a clue what was going on were really getting to him.
"We should get back to Kakashi now that I found you." Cat-person Rin said, turning around when she was thoroughly convinced he'd follow.
Obito stood and stumbled forward, his legs not prepared to support the weight of his body. Another few steps and he got himself oriented enough to walk properly, but not before Rin took notice of his difficulties.
"You alright back there? It's not like you to trip over your hooves."
Hooves. The words kinda stung when they entered his ears. Not that he was in disbelief that he had hooves, but he was actively denying it. As far as he was concerned, everything was just fine. A relaxing stroll through the dark spooky woods with one his closest pals who was not half mountain lion, that's all this was.
Oh, who was he kidding?
There wasn't any way to judge how much time passed since they had begun trekking. Not like it mattered, they'd get to Kakashi soon enough. One thing was sure at the moment, whatever he was (He was going to go with satyr) it wasn't meant for navigation in the darkness. The forest was now pitch black and he tripped over practically anything in his path. Obito might have said something about wanting to slow down so he could become more sure-footed but if he said the wrong thing, he'd blow his cover before he wanted to.
So stumbling around in the back it is.
He wished he had woken up as whatever Rin was. She weaved in and out of obstacles with such ease, periodically dropping down on all fours to avoid
fallen branches. Here he was falling on his face over and over.
After long, the two ended up in a clearing, moonlight shined down from above, illuminating the silver fur of a biped wolfman with a mask covering one of his eyes. He looked nothing like Kakashi. Might have been because of the whole wolf man thing. Even so, Obito could tell this wolfman was his impassive friend by the overwhelming impassivity he radiated.
Goddamn it, why was everyone a cooler creature than him?
"Hey! Kakashi, long time no see!" Obito joked, trying to dispel the silence which ensued. Kakashi walked over to him, towering over both him and Rin.
"Did you have a good walk Obito?" He asked with a hint condescension.
Obito winced at his tone. Wasn't like he wanted to open a door to a world where his friend were monsters.
"Yes, I did. Very refreshing." Obito retorted, almost forgetting that Kakashi wasn't the same Kakashi he usually bantered with. The Uchiha found a degree of comfort in knowing how close these creatures were to the friends he knew before.
"What about the wendigo? Did you located it?" Kakashi asked.
Wendigo? Obito might have heard the name once or twice in the past but he had no clue what a wendigo was, much less seen one.
"Wendigo…" He echoed. "No, I couldn't locate it."
Kakashi looked to Rin, shooting her a serious glance. "You didn't find it either, huh?"
"Not a trace of it. I'm beginning to think it was a false alarm." She replied.
"It's starting to sound very likely. Besides, if it was a wendigo, it would have tried to attack Konoha by now. They always do."
Obito stiffened at the mention of Konoha. He lived in Konoha. A normal, Konoha with non-clawed citizens. Distantly he began to wonder if he'd landed in a strange equivalent to his own world- or maybe he was dreaming? He'd love to wake up, to know all of this was a gigantic confusing dream and everything would make sense again. Life wasn't a kind mistress to Obito usually, so all bets were off.
The weight of his predicament began to bear on him as he toyed with the idea of telling them. Certainly, he'd sound nuts, then again he's probably been acting weird this whole time so perhaps Obito not being their Obito might not be too far-fetched.
"We can get back to the village tonight if we hurry." One of them said. Obito wasn't really paying attention to who. Great, more stumbling around in the dark.
Superficially, Konoha was barely comparable to the bustling counterpart he knew. There were no cars, no furious undercurrents of people moving about. For the most part, it was quite, sleepy, and almost appeared to be grabbed straight out a fairy tale and plopped into the real world. The buildings were made of wood paneling and orange clay shingles. From what he saw at his spot directly outside of the forest, the village was condensed, buildings were practically on top of each other unlike the Konoha he knew in which it took forever to get from one place to another.
Rin and Kakashi already began to leave him behind, each saying a variant of goodbye before disappearing into the darkness.
Please, please, don't leave me here, Obito thought to himself hollowly as he watched them, sitting down in the grass to process what has happened up to this point. Eventually, he'd have to go into the village himself. There was a hint of fear in doing so, however. They would recognize Obito the satyr who lived in the village his whole life. Not Obito the kid who appeared here and is currently pretending to be this place's Obito.
Could he face living a lie?
Did he have to?
Obito felt the wind ruffle the black fur on his legs. It felt surreal, to know how different life became in such a small amount of time.
Once the wind began to pick up, the temperature plummeted, forcing Obito to pick himself up.
Shivering, he walked across the windswept field into an unfamiliar Konoha.
Surprise, surprise, one step through the gates and he was already lost. Not knowing where to go from here, he located a nearby bench and sat down on the cold wood. The wind wasn't as harsh within the village walls but he was still freezing his ass off. Trying to take his mind off the miserable conditions, he noted figures moving about the rooftops. Monsters most likely, if there were any like Kakashi and Rin, there were bound to be those who skulked about at night. Obito surely wasn't one of them. He laid on the bench, eyes growing heavy despite the chilly wind. No one hated the cold more than him but how much his ass was freezing was a problem which paled in comparison to being a goat man- a very confused goat man. Wouldn't it be great if he was allowed to forget for a few hours?
Slowly, his mind dropped in activity and his body forgot the bitter sensation of icy wood under him.
"Obito?!" He heard a voice exclaim, promptly jolting him wide awake.
Apparently, he fate was giving him the middle finger tonight.
Rubbing his eyes, he sat up on the bench and prepared himself to meet and alternate version of yet another person he knew, Kushina Uzumaki.
She was a lioness with bright scarlet fur, and horns like his own- and what looked to be snake's tail which writhed slightly once in awhile. Her eyebrow was raised expectantly, waiting for an explanation to his weird antics.
In her usual boldness, she sat beside the groggy Uchiha without a flicker of intention to ask.
"I thought you were out with Kakashi and Rin to find the Wendigo?" She asked, her deep amber eyes flickering under the streetlamp.
"False alarm." Obito yawned, wishing she wouldn't pursue the conversation further, but knowing she had all intentions of playing 20 questions with him.
The chimera's ears perked up with the news. She gained a contemplative expression for a moment before shaking her head. "That doesn't sound right. We found wendigo tracks only two days ago."
"What if it left?" Obito asked, trying to keep himself awake long enough for maintain their talk.
"And not take a chance on eating our kids? Fat chance. Wendigos are driven by an undeniable craving for flesh. They're not too bright either. They always try to attack the village if they can help it. I'll talk to Minato about what to do about the wendigo in detail tomorrow."
Minato. A name he'd never heard before in his life. If Minato was a part of his Kushina's life, she never mentioned him. These two places might not be completely paralleled after all. The Kushina he knew was a juvenile detention officer he still kept in close contact with, and the only one that didn't treat him and his old friends like they were irredeemable trash. She was really the main reason Obito turned his life around. For the first time in his life, he was made to feel like he mattered. Her being here reassured him slightly. He didn't care much she wasn't human..
"Yeah," He chuckled weakly.
"So about you sleeping on a bench…" She said, trailing off. "Why? The view of the back of a building can't be that impressive a sight."
Exhaustive laughter bubbled up in Obito who struggled to retain it. Boy, wasn't that the question of the century?
"Too tired to go home." He lied, hopefully, he had a home otherwise that would sound crazy.
"Need me to walk you home then?" Kushina offered.
Yes, this Obito did have a home! And Kushina was willing to take him there. Thank god one thing was going right for him.
Almost comically, he hobbled onto his hooves. "Thanks," He told the chimera, who grinned and ruffled his hair. "Don't mention it kid. And next time ya think about sleeping on benches, wear a coat." Kushina teased.
"Here we are." Kushina declared. She was much more lively than Obito at the moment. He should have been thrilled to have a place to stay overnight but he was too tired to care, though.
"I want you, Rin and Kakashi to come to the Hokage's office tomorrow at noon. We'll sort out what to do about the wendigo."
Obito stiffly nodded to her. He'd find out where that was tomorrow, right now he wanted nothing but the sweet embrace of sleep.
Kushina wasted no time saying goodbye, she had important matters to discuss. Obito, on the other hand, remembered suddenly that the door was probably locked. He jiggled the doorknob, yup, locked.
The satyr butted his head against the door in irritation. Come on, couldn't he have it easy for once? An idea then embedded itself in his head, if this was supposed to be another Obito's house, where would he hide a key? The Uchiha reached in the pockets of the shorts he woke up in. Nothing. He backed away from the door stoop of the wooden shack. A doormat! Obito lifted it up and discovered a gold key. Finally, sleep, here comes Obito!
Obito awoke to the sound of harsh rapping on his door. Drowsily, he turned away from the source of the sound, but the knocker persisted. No, he was not dealing with this right now, he's been through too much shit in the past night.
The knocking continued and Obito let out a loud moan, a tactic he developed whenever Kakashi visited his house back. What Obito wasn't prepared for, however, was a piercing loud scream to slice through the air, compelling him to leap out of bed, rush to the door, and throw it open. Outside were a very stern Kakashi and Rin.
"What was that?" He murmured loudly.
"Me," Rin said. "My kind is good at doing that." Her ears were folding back against her head, not good.
"Obito, we have something we need to discuss," Kakashi told him, his one visible eye boring into him. Kakashi appeared more human than he did last night but really Obito didn't care. He had a sneaking supposition he knew what this was about.
"W-what would that be." Obito stammered, the urge to slam the door in their faces growing ever stronger.
"Follow us, and we'll explain there," Rin said, the tip of her tail twitching up and down.
He did as he was told, and followed them through the village. Rin led, while Kakashi held up the rear.
Damn did Obito feel like he was going to prison. Instead, they led him into the towering building in the middle of the village. On the way to the top, he got a lot of stares from monstrous deer people, what he could only describe as plant cloaked humans, and at least one dragon man.
His throat closed up numerous times as the three climbed higher into the tower, with his racing thoughts, it was near impossible to keep his worries in check. When they got to the very top and Rin opened the door, Obito's heart nearly leaped out of his chest. He was escorted in by the mountain lion version of Rin, and Kakashi closed the door behind him.
The man behind the desk actually somewhat resembled a normal man- one with bright yellow feathers, a huge ass wingspan, and talons that could rip a bear to shreds in a swipe. He didn't look happy. By his side was Kushina with the same steadfast expression. Obito was going to assume the birdman was Minato.
"This isn't about the wendigo is it." Obito choked on the words trying to escape his mouth.
"No, this is about you," Minto said, placing his hands on the desk. Obito gulped and shrank back, those talons were going to be hooked him soon, he just knew it.
"Me?"
"Rin reported your strange behavior last night coming back from the wendigo hunt. She told me she sensed something completely wrong about you. I am not one to question a wampus cat's intuition, much less a former student of mine. So I ask you, what do you have to say for this?"
Obito locked up, flat out unable to get himself to function at all. For his own sake, he strained himself to do so.
"Okay, I'll try not to make myself sound crazy. I'm not from here, that is, I'm Obito just not your Obito. I come from a world like this one and all of you are in it, but we're are all humans. That is, hairless monkeys if monkeys exist here."
"Then why are you here?" Kushina asked from the side, Obito wasn't quite sure if she was pissed or not, he hoped no one was pissed or thought he was insane with all the shit he was spewing.
He slowly shrugged.
"Really, I don't know why I'm here. I was trying to make a haunted house with my Kakashi and Rin so we could get some money on a holiday we celebrate. Kushina recommended a house no one owned anymore and it was locked when we got there, so I broke the lock and walked in and suddenly I'm here."
Obito explained the best he could, all while talking a mile a minute. His head was pounding by the time he finished but the deed was done. They knew.
The room fell silent.
"You were trying to make yourself sound less crazy?" Kakashi asked.
Obito said nothing, lowering his gaze to the ground.
More silence.
"If you're a different Obito, then where is our Obito?" Rin questioned, just barely audible.
The Uchiha pursed his lips, honestly, he hadn't given much thought to where the other Obito went. His conscience sunk even further as he thought about how crushed they all must be, to have their friend flat out gone without a trace and replaced with someone who is only superficially the same.
"I… don't know." he whispered aloud.
Suddenly the door swung open, violently hitting the wall. In dashed an older fox kid in an orange jumpsuit with brassy fur and nine wildly waving tails.
"Mom, Dad!" He shouted, completely out of breath. "W-wendigo. At the front gate. He… talks. Wants a human." He huffed.
Kushina and Minato turned to each other in shock.
Minato stood from his desk and opening the large window behind him. "If he's intelligent enough to talk, then we'll try to reason with him." He said stepping out the window, unfurling his powerful wings and taking off, the sound of thunder crackled through the air as he flew. Kushina followed suit, running off the building and landing skillfully on the adjacent and to the next. Soon, she was gone too.
The son left the building quite anti-climatically through the door after his parents, assumably to see the wendigo up close for himself.
"... How do they get a fox kid with nine tails?" Obito inquired, flat out numb to what was going on at the time.
"A long story and some adoption papers," Kakashi answered, maybe just a numbly as Obito asked.
"It wants you," Rin remarked.
"I know," Obito replied. He sighed to himself. "If it knows something about my appearance here, then..."
"...I'm going to meet it."
Rin and Kakashi looked at him with utter shock, "Really? You're going to risk getting eaten?"
Obito grinned, it this wendigo could help him fix this mess, he'd risk being dinner. "Yeah, you guys must miss your Obito right?"
Kakashi must have been smiling under his mask with the sudden brightness in his eyes. "We better not keep it waiting then."
The village was competently empty along the way. All of the citizens were gather around the gate, making it difficult to reach the front. After pushing their way through the crowd, they spotted Kushina, Minato, and the horrific beast. Its mouth frothed with fresh blood, its matted brown hair dangled in front of his face. It wore what look to be a tattered white robe which exposed its dark, tearing skin and semi-visible chest cavity.
Obito gulped, absolutely brimming with fear.
"Here I am." He murmured.
The wendigo lowered its head to the satyr, a toothy grin stretched across its face. "I knew we would meet in time." It growled, holding out its painfully elongated arms.
"Come with me. We won't be long."
Kushina stepped forward, her large, jagged teeth glistening in the sunlight.
"If you don't return him, I will personally see to it that you burn." She snarled, spitting out some embers for emphasis.
The beast was unfazed by her intimidation tactics. "Why, I wouldn't dream of messing with Konoha's citizen." It said.
Gesturing for him to follow it, Obito hesitantly complied.
The ghastly wendigo led him to the same wooded clearing from the night before, now bathed in sunlight.
"So, humans really aren't allowed in this world." It said to itself.
"I got that Mr. Wendigo, can you just tell me what's going on? And how you even knew about me? More importantly, how do I set things straight?"
Crinkling its nose, the wendigo snorted at him.
"It's Kakuzu, kid. I'd like to be referred to by my name." Kakuzu gave a short gravelly laugh.
"Funny you haven't figured it out. I come from your world. The scent to cars and pollution clings to you like clothing. I detected you for the first time last night when I was hunting. And here you are. I wanted to know how you arrived."
"A doorway," Obito said, relaxing a little. "I was trying to get into an abandoned house and when I walked in. I found myself here."
Kakuzu had a wistful expression cross his unnaturally thin face. "My house. That was my house. That world never had a place for me. So I studied dark magic under my family's nose in order to create a gateway to this world. It seems the gateway enveloped the inside of my house over time."
Obito's maroon eyes glittered with excitement. Finally! A person who knew what the hell was going on!
"Do you know what happened to the other Obito?!" The satyr asked, anxious for an answer.
"In your shoes logically. If you are him, then for the worlds to keep balance, he must be you." Kakuzu replied flatly.
The satyr thought about how to put his next question, finally choosing to as outright.
"How do I get back?"
"You don't," Kakuzu said sharply.
"There is no returning, not unless you want to risk destabilizing both worlds again. Neither of us are supposed to be here. Creating gateway a rips a hole in both universes, one which is progressively harder to patch with each person who passes through. Between the two of us, four people have passed through. Now that you'd opened my house again, that number might increase and destabilize the worlds even more. Even if I could replicate the gateway. I wouldn't do it."
Obito blinked, sadly thinking about the lives he'd just ruined. Never going back. Never bringing the other Obito home… No, he wasn't letting it end like that.
Obito bowed respectfully to the wendigo. "Thanks for filling me in, but I need to fix this mess. I can't let it end with two versions of Obito displaced forever. If I need to find a better way to make a gateway, I will. There are friends counting on me."
The Uchiha turned away from the wendigo and vanished into the trees.
Kakuzu stared down the disappearing shape until only the scent of the former human remained.
His naivete would be his downfall.