Obito stared nervously at the ruined buildings before him. There were many stories about these buildings, each one more frightening than the last. But he would show his cousins that he wasn't a crybaby! All he had to do was to go in and bring back something to show his courage, preferably something that no one could ever doubt had come from the ruined temple. All that without being caught. Easy...
He was still thinking of the consequences of his father finding out he had left the village without permission when a voice behind him made him jump out of his skin. He liked to think the shriek he let out was manly.
"What are you doing here?" demanded the creepiest looking kid he had ever seen. A few years younger than Obito, white hair sticking out in every direction and a mask covering half his face, he could have been a vengeful spirit himself.
"What's it to you?" He really didn't fancy explaining his reasons to a white haired masked midget, that may or may not be human. He was saving his excuses for people taller than himself. Come to think of it, what was that excuse he had made up again...
"You're not allowed to be here." Right, definitely human. And annoying : this kid hardly came up to his waist!
"Nor are you." The best defense was attack, after all. See he did listen in class – when it suited him anyway.
"Actually, I am. I'm meeting with my sensei." This brat was really insufferable, Obito was just going to grab something and leave so he wouldn't have to listen to him any more. Hang on a second...
"You're too young to be meeting a sensei out of the village."
The child just looked at him as if he was stupid, the kind of stare he was quite used to receiving. After a few seconds of looking back, it dawned on him : the headband.
"Oh..."
"I'm a chunin."
"But you're tiny!" blurted out Obito.
The boy looked insulted. "The two are not mutually exclusive."
That was a lot of big words, thought Obito. "If you say so. Now, if you don't mind, I'm busy."
"Doing what exactly?" Was the kid never going to leave him alone?
"It's none of your business, but I've got to get something out of that temple."
"What?"
"Anything."
"Why?"
Did this boy ever shut up? "Would you stop asking questions? What does it matter to you anyway?"
"That building is not structurally sound. No one is meant to go in." More big words.
"Listen, I came all the way out here and I need something to prove it. So if you don't mind..." With that, Obito strode towards the crumbling entrance to the ruins. This boy had no idea how much effort had gone into getting so far. No way was he turning around now.
Now that he had an objective, Obito deployed all his skills into reaching it.
His plan had formed after the teasing he had received the day before, particularly cruel, even for his cousins. He was going to show them, beyond any doubt, that he was not a crybaby. The plan had come slowly. First, how to prove his bravery? The old ruins had imposed themselves to him, no one else from his age group had ever been there and the newly appointed genin often used them as a courage test when their senseis weren't looking. Next, how to get out of the village? It had taken time, but he had eventually settled on ruse rather than outright sneakiness (which he just didn't have)...
Obito, spied on the comings and goings through the gate from his hiding spot nearby. It didn't take too long for what he was waiting for to happen : one of his uncles left the village, probably on a mission. After a long enough lapse of time, Obito rushed from his hiding place towards the chunin guarding the gates holding a piece of paper.
"Have you seen my uncle, he gasped in between two hurried breaths. I need to give him this message before he leaves."
"You just missed him, said the chunin. If you hurry, you might just catch him."
"Thanks." Shouted Obito over his shoulder, he wasn't sticking around for the guard to change his mind.
"Wait!" The order stopped Obito in his tracks. They'd found him out!
"You dropped this." The boy stepped forward to reclaim the piece of paper. He was lucky, if the chunin had looked inside, to the blank sheet...
Once he was out of sight, a triumphant smile spread across his face. The hardest part was over. Final step, find proof of his daring adventure.
Obito was surprised to find his way blocked by the miniature chunin. "You can't go in there."
He didn't take the slightest bit of notice, and slid around the child.
"Hey! I said you can't go in there!"
"What are you going to do about it?" Before the words had finished leaving his mouth, Obito found himself with one of his arms twisted behind his back.
"This should work, was the smug reply. And then I can tell sensei when he arrives."
"Come on, I'm not doing any harm and my cousins will never let me live this down if I don't bring something back."
"I can't let you go in there. That's the rules."
"You're just scared."
He had struck a nerve. The white haired kid looked mortally offended. "I am not! he exclaimed. I'm a chunin."
"The two are not mutually exclusive," parroted back Obito.
"I'm not scared."
"Are."
"Am not. I'll show you." With that he dropped Obito's arm and pushed past him into the temple. The older boy followed with a grin : not only did he get to bring back proof of his courage, but he didn't have to go into a potentially haunted building on his own. Maybe ghosts preferred to eat snack sized kids.
Curiosity getting the better of him, Obito decided to open up a conversation with his strange companion. "So why are you waiting for your sensei here?"
"We had to split up during our last mission, this is the rendez-vous point so we can go back to the village together."
"Who's-" He didn't get to finish the sentence as the young ninja's hand clamped down over his mouth. He let out an indignant grunt, only to have all the air of his lungs forced out by a punch to the stomach.
"Shut up, the younger boy hissed in his ear. There are ninja coming, and I don't recognize their chakra signatures. Find a place to hide and don't make a sound." Following his own advice, he disappeared.
Heart beating, Obito crouched down behind some rubble, doing his best to not even breath. He heard soft footsteps approaching above the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.
"He must be down here, he was outside when we lost track of him."
"Can't even keep up with a kid, mocked a second voice. No wonder we need to take him back."
"Yeah, imagine being replaced by a foreign brat hardly big enough to open doors," pipped in a third voice.
Obito was shaking behind the rocks now. It sounded as though these shinobi were after the masked midget, but he couldn't for the life him think why. Before he could come up with any theories, a hand grabbed him by the neck and shoved him face first against the nearest wall.
"Well look what we have here," the nin chuckled.
"Found him?"
"Nah, just another Konoha rat. But he might know something."
He turned back to face Obito, and the boy found himself staring at a scarred face with dead eyes. The man was wearing a headband whose symbol he should probably have recognized, but the only thing registering in his numb brain was the fact that the symbol was barred. A missing nin. Obito wished they had stayed missing a bit longer. Just his luck that he happened to be the one to find them. Or, truthfully, to be found by them. He really didn't like the look of them eyes, and even less the kunai getting dangerously close to his throat.
"Where's Hatake Kakashi?"
"Who?" He immediately regretted his honest answer as he flew into the opposite wall.
"Stop fooling around! You really think we're going to believe you don't know who the youngest chuunin of Konoha is?" The missing nin was already back in front of Obito, shaking him by the collar. Unfortunately, recognition of the description must have shown on his face because the nin just shook him harder. "So you do know! Answer me!"
But Obito couldn't. This Kakashi might be a chuunin and better able to defend himself, but Obito felt a strange responsibility towards the younger boy and he wasn't about to give him up. Instead, he struggled weakly, not that it did him much good.
The renegade shinobi changed tactics. Spinning Obito around, he brought his kunai to his throat. "Hatake! I know you're here! Come out or I'll have no choice but to kill this little rat before I come looking for you."
Kakashi had been about to come out anyway. He couldn't really let a bunch of rogue ninja kill a pre-genin, it would take a lot of explaining when his sensei turned up. The only problem was, he wasn't sure he could kill the three of them before they killed the idiot that was out of the village without permission. That's why you should always follow the rules. Those that didn't invariably ended up in trouble. He suddenly tensed, a new chakra signature had appeared in the ruins, but this one he knew.
The two missing nin nearest the entrance dropped dead without sound. The one holding Obito only registered a yellow flash before he joined them.
Obito felt relief flood through him as the kunai dropped from his throat. All of a sudden the ruins seemed to wobble and twist... perhaps they were finally collapsing. It was only when he hit the ground that he realized there was nothing wrong with the buildings.
An hour later, Minato met up with his student on the training field. It had been a close shave this afternoon, he almost hadn't made it back in time. While he didn't doubt his student's abilities, there are somethings you just shouldn't do before you reached 1m20. Facing off three adult shinobi was one of them. He really wasn't looking forward to the time in the not so distant future when their enemies stopped regarding Kakashi as a young genius who could be kidnapped and persuaded to join their cause and started seeing him as a young genius to be killed before he destroyed their cause.
And today, his student wasn't the only one involved, he'd just dropped the other boy of at the hospital though he didn't seem to have much wrong with him, probably just shock.
"How is he?" An unexpected but welcome question.
"He should be fine."
Interesting. That was the most concern Kakashi had shown for another human being since his father had died. Even better, the kid, Obito he had learned his name was, would be graduating from the academy this year. It was about time Kakashi worked in a proper team.