*Pre-emptive Warning: There is a character death that may devastate some fans...
The scene before the dark-haired teen shattered his mind; his lone, crimson eye wide in disbelief. His body trembled, fighting itself to spring into action, but did not budge. He simply stood in place, his eye capturing and searing the image of his one and only love with the hand of his best friend going through her chest. The chakra-powered lightning that had enabled him to cut through her chest like wet paper had died down and the two locked eyes.
Removing his hand callously, the silver-haired teen watched his teammate collapse like a puppet that had its strings cut. Guilt and rage bubbled up inside the two teens as, unknown to either of them, their red eyes began morphing into an entirely new form, gifting them with new-found prowess.
"RIN" the dark-haired teen shouted, finally finding his voice. The masked teen blinked and found the source of the voice, surprised to see an old, supposedly dead, face.
"O-Obito?" he murmured before his legs buckled under his weight, his chakra depleted from the last attack. He fell hard, landing unceremoniously on top of his female comrade, on the verge of unconsciousness. Obito wasted no time in disposing of the Jonin-level enemies that easily outnumbered him twenty-five to one. His instincts took hold of him as he literally ran through various shinobi, as if they weren't really there.
Or, more accurately, like he wasn't there.
In minutes, the last man standing was Obito, having finished the remaining shinobi by summoning multiple trees to sprout and skewer all of them.
Triumphant in battle only, Obito kneeled beside his love, his shoulders slumped in defeat as he held her close to him. Tears trailed down the right side of his face as he racked his brain to come up with a solution to save Rin. When nothing, not even a stupid idea, came to mind, he shut his eye and cursed in frustration.
Why... Why was he destined to lose everything he held dear? He died to save his friends... only to lose them before he could see them again? And killing each other, at that?
'Was this what I died for?!' he punched the ground, creating small cracks but otherwise, nothing happened. Rin was not coming back. She would die here and he would never see her smile again.
He gently set her back down, studying her face one last time before setting his eye to a new target. His sharingan gleamed with hatred as he moved towards Kakashi. He had roughly shoved him off Rin earlier and he flew a bit farther than Obito had intended. He gripped the masked teen's collar and lifted him off his feet.
"Kakashi," Obito's voice was flooded with venom, his disdain for the teen growing with each breath. "I should kill you for what you've done."
"Do... it..."
Obito was surprised the teen was conscious, but refused to show it. His scowl remained plastered on his face.
"Do you think I'm bluffing?!" he shrieked histerically, summoning a wooden spike to reinforce his words. He was further surpised when Kakashi simply gave him an expression that Obito could read as happiness. Somehow, even with his mask on, Obito could tell his ex-teammate was smiling. This only proved to anger the Uchiha even more. "Is this amusing to you, bastard?"
Kakashi let out a weak chuckle, despite the sudden tightness around his throat. "I-I am dead either... way... That last Chidori took everything... I had. But... I had to."
"Had to?! Don't make me laugh!" After a moment's pause, Obito made up his mind. "Goodbye, Hatake." He positioned the wooden spike over his heart.
"Before you do..." Kakashi suddenly coughed, blood coming out of his mouth. Without waiting to see if he would wait to kill him, Kakashi opened his left eye and closed his right. "Take back... what is rightfully yours..."
Obito only hesitated for a second before dropping the wooden spike and removing the Sharingan with no regards to Kakashi's comfort. It was odd, seeing his own Sharingan in his hands. If he wasn't so angry with Kakashi, with himself, he might have laughed at the irony of the situation.
"Obi...to..." Obito looked up and saw Kakashi looking at him his lone eye, a single tear slowly coming out. "I... never told you but..."
"Thanks... for being my first... real... frien-" the volume of Kakashi's voice slowly began to fade until eventually, he became silent. His eye remained opened, even as he died, deeply disturbing Obito.
'Why... why does this hurt me?' he thought as he let Kakashi fall from his grasp. Maybe he felt bad for his friend's passing because he wasn't a monster, like he was. Only a monster could kill their friends and not feel a thing.
The thought did nothing to quell the pain in his chest.
"O...O-Obito?" a weak voice called out. Obito's body froze in disbelief. There was no way...
Rin giggled. "I knew... I heard your goofy... v-voice..."
Obito was over her in an instant and brought her up to his chest, careful of the hole in her chest. "Rin. How...?"
"Listen to me... Obito. I don't have the... strength to lecture you... like I used to."
"All because of that bastard-"
A gentle hand on his cheek disrupted the momentum of his rage. Rin simply smiled at his bewildered look.
"If it... wasn't for him..." she coughed up blood, but fought to keep it down. She knew he would make a fuss so she moved a delicate finger over his lips. When the coughs subsided, she continued. "If it wasn't for... Kakashi... I'd be a weapon... of the Mist Village."
"Rin... I don't get it..."
Again, she giggled with a small cough coming after. "There is nothing to get. Just... do me a favor?" she asked with a weary smile.
He could never say no to the one he loved, especially when she smiled at him. He was putty in her hands.
"Come home... will you... The place has been a wreck... with you gone." the dam holding back his tears finally broke and tears flooded down his cheeks. He shut his eyes and held her closer still, crying into her shoulders. Despite her current state, she noticed Kakashi's body, seeing the blood trailing down his left eye. Her own eyes looked down at Obito's left hand and she moved a weak hand over it. She could barely make the motion for him to open his hand, and when he did, she took his eye.
"R-Rin..."
"S-Shut up... one good favor... deserves... another..." her hands glowed with green chakra as she worked to restore Obito's eye. It happened faster than last time and in no time, Obito had two functioning eyes again. The suddenness of depth perception threw off his balance, but only for a moment. His tears renewed as he thanked Rin.
"Hey, now... What... kind of Hokage cries...?"
For the first time in what felt like forever, Obito smiled; though it left a bittersweet taste in his mouth.
"This Hokage."
Rin smiled one last time as fatigue ate away at her remaining strength.
"Of course... Lord... Hokage..." she trailed off as her life faded, unlike the smile that remained. Obito let out an agonized cry, not caring if anyone heard him.
Now, all that was left of Team Minato was him, his teacher and their memories.
So this is just a teaser of what could potentially come to be. My muse for my other stories has left me for the moment, and the only thing I could think to write was this. I saw an AMV for Obito with Evanescence's song Hello, and it helped to inspire me to write this. Though, I've always wondered why he didn't kill Kakashi then and there, or wake him up and demand an answer from him.
On a side note: I've read stories where they change something along Naruto's timeline during his lifetime. That is to say, I've yet to read a story that goes beyond the night Kurama attacked the village. And yet, if it wasn't for Obito, Kurama wouldn't have attacked and most importantly, Madara wouldn't have his strongest tool at his disposal and his plans would take even longer to come to light. I know he's done other things but for time's sake, I'm pointing out the two biggest things he's done in the overall plot of the anime.
I really want to write a story of Naruto that follows the changes this scenario leads to and I've got the big details planned out, but, as they say, the devil is in the details.Let me know what you think and hopefully, I can find my muse to actually finish this project... and eventually my other stories, as well.
Before I forget, I will be leaving this particular story as a One-shot. If I do go on to make the multi-chaptered story, it will be published as a separate, though related story. It would mostly follow Naruto's life, with him sharing the spotlight with Obito and flashbacks of the choices he's made after the events of this story, just so I can explain them, but not dwell too much into them.
Lastly, before anyone asks me, yes, Hinata is my go-to choice for Naruto's partner. I'm not entirely sure if I'll have a lot of Naruhina fluff in it since the story will have a different tone than what I'm used to writing but who knows. I'm just giving a heads up to all the anti-Naruhina readers that have read this story.
Till next time.