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Tsunade is a scary woman. Everyone knows this.

Obito cowers the moment he steps into her office, clearly the last one to be there. He offers nothing but an apologetic grin as Tsunade glares at him.

"You're late," the Fifth Hokage comments.

"Ah, well, you see," Obito says, raising his hands up as he walks up toward the desk, taking his place beside Rin. His teammates are all watching him, with RIn clearly more concerned for him than Kakashi is, who is sporting his usual cool and lazy expression. "I was making my way over here when I came across a kid who says she lost her cat…"

"That is a lie!" Tsunade shouts, almost shaking the entire table in her anger. Her fists are clenched so tightly that her knuckles are white and Obito can feel dread crawling down his spine. "Fine," the Lady Hokage says after a while and some of the fear dissipates. "Forget it. Let's get on with the meeting. We are behind schedule already."

Obito laughs nervously when she casts an angry glance at him, scratching the back of his head. Kakashi chuckles beside him but he promptly shuts up when Tsunade shouts at them.

"Shut up and listen!" she says, effectively making them do as she says. Rin raises her hands to give both Kakashi and Obito a reassuring pat on the back. "We're arranging a meeting with Iwagakure. A peace treaty."

"A peace treaty?" Kakashi echoes.

"Yes, the old man Onoki has decided to step down and after some persuasion from both my trusted sources and the Fourth Tsuchikage, he agreed to hold a peace treaty to mend the ways he has treated the other Hidden Villages," Tsunade says. "He has gracefully decided to start with the Hidden Leaf and I want this to be the perfect example for the others."

They nod.

"Now, you will all be arriving at a mid-way point – a vacation home of the Fire Daimyo's near the border. It will take you some time to get there so I want you not to rest for too long. I don't want you to keep them waiting and strain the treaty. It took half my life to arrange this damned meeting and I won't have you botch it!"

When Tsunade says the last part, she looks directly at Obito. He cringes but otherwise remains quiet at the comment.

Tsunade leafs through a file that seems to contain important information for a few seconds before letting it close. She hands it over the desk and Kakashi steps forward to accept it.

"If the old man is everything that I've known him to be," Tsunade says, "he'll only choose his personal apprentices to represent Iwa. The file contains what we know of them and what they want to be known as. He might pull something new and bring some other people, but I highly doubt it. You better familiarize yourselves with his subordinates."

Tsunade doesn't even let them mull over the file as she continues. "I don't know if Kurotsuchi would be there seeing as she is the Tsuchikage and I'm sure she'll have a lot of work on her hands, but we just have to hope she will be because she seems to be the only one who can talk some sense into her grandfather."

The three Jonin nod wearily at the comment and Kakashi holds the file in his left hand, shoving his right back into his pants' pocket.

Obito stifles a yawn which is caught by Tsunade's ever-watching gaze.

"If you return to this village with news of the treaty ending in failure, I'll make you wish you will never have to see the sun rise ever again," Tsunade says, waving an accusing finger at Obito, who immediately sobers up from his sleepiness. "If this mission fails, it's all on you, Obito. These aren't the kind of things you can be late to. You do well to remember that if you don't want your dream of becoming Hokage to end up as nothing but empty words."

"Yes, Lady Hokage," Obito says, lowering his head in a bow. He glares at Kakashi out of the corner of his eye, who just offers him a halfhearted apologetic smile.

They are dismissed swiftly after that and they carry Tsunade's blessing out of the room. Obito scowls and hurries to Kakashi's side, throwing a mock punch at his arm.

"Ouch," Kakashi says, turning his head to look at his friend. He reaches up and makes a show of rubbing his arm.

"You know I wouldn't have been late if it weren't for you," Obito says.

Kakashi laughs. "Sorry, sorry," he says, pressing a hand against his forehead protector. "By the way, did you finish all the unit tests?"

"I did," Obito says, "but I haven't handed them in yet. You can go do that."

"Ah, but they're due today," Kakashi says. "Can you do it for me, please?"

"What are you, limp?" Obito says, flabbergasted. "Can't you do anything by yourself?"

"Please, Obito? You're a good friend, right?"

"More like a good slave," Obito says underneath his breath.

"I'll treat you to dinner for a week," Kakashi says.

Obito regards him for a few moments but then he relents, grinning. "It's a promise, then. Don't go back on it."

"Yeah," Kakashi says, giving him a thumbs-up.

Rin gives both boys a slap on the bicep and the two of them return to a semi-serious state, worried about the consequences of the silent warning.

Obito reminds himself that he should be glad that he's still single.

The group splits up when they reach the center of the village, agreeing to meet at the entrance in ten minutes.

Obito yawns as he heads back, tears prickling at the edge of his eyes. He doesn't even bother covering his mouth.

Once he reaches his home, Obito grabs his traveling bag and starts shoving necessary items into it. He takes his notebooks, his pens, an extra set of clothes, and some pre-packaged meals. Rolling up his sleeping bag, he fastens it into place on top of the pack.

Swinging it over his shoulder, Obito heads back to the entrance of his house. He stops by the door, turning to say goodbye to his grandmother. He clasps his hands together and bows, and then he reaches to place a glowing incense on her shrine. He looks at her picture for a moment, smiling at the memory of her packing for his very first mission.

Saying goodbye once more, Obito heads out of the house.

There is evidently more activity in the village by the time he's out the door. The elderly Uchiha Akemi from across the street from his is cleaning her porch. Upon noticing Obito, she gives him a friendly wave and a greeting. Obito offers her a smile and returns the greeting before turning and leaving the street.

On his way to the academy, he hears hasty footsteps behind him. The distance between them is too small for it to be of any threat to him. Judging by the distance, it seems to belong to a child around the age of twelve to thirteen.

Only one Uchiha comes to mind and it is no coincidence that he is awake at this hour.

"Sasuke!" A voice calls out and Obito doesn't even need to turn around to confirm his suspicions. Itachi sounds desperate and far away, probably – pretending to – trying to catch up with his little brother.

"Watch out, Mr. Obito!" Sasuke's breaking voice sounds closer to him than before and Obito steps to the side, avoiding the little shinobi with ease. He watches as a mop of black hair zooms past him. Sasuke laughs and continues to run.

"Sorry about that, Obito, sir," Itachi says behind him, slowly beginning to catch up.

"It's fine," Obito says. "It's good to see you're off work to spend some time with your little brother."

"My foolish little brother," Itachi grins back. He soon overtakes Obito in his leisurely jogging pace. "See you later, Obito, sir!"

"See you," Obito says, doing a little wave after Itachi.

Obito leaves the Uchiha's district and heads out to the main street, heading toward the academy. He drops off the unit tests at the reception at the entrance and after a few exchanges; Obito begins to head to the entrance of the village.

Glancing at the sky, he notes that he still has some time left and slows his pace. On his way, he helps an old lady pick up her spilled groceries and sends her on her way, knowing that he'll definitely be late if he walks her home.

When he arrives at the entrance, Kakashi and Rin dramatically throw their heads back, groaning.

"What?" Obito asks. "I'm not even that late."

"That's the point," Kakashi says, jabbing his thumb at Naruto, who is clinging to his father's leg.

"Hey, hey," Naruto says, "One-Eye is here on time!"

"He is," Minato laughs, leaning down to hoist his son up.

"So, you're taking me, right?" Naruto asks.

"Well, I don't think your mother would like that," Minato says, smiling apologetically at his son.

"Oh," Obito blinks.

"'Oh' is right," Kakashi says. "Apparently he's been here since our meeting began."

"That's a long time to wait," Obito says.

"It is a long time to wait," Kakashi says.

Obito tries to focus on their conversation as Kushina tries to convince Naruto that the treaty is not a fun mission to go on – it'll soon escalate. The Uzumaki blood is tantalizingly stubborn.

"So, did you read the file?" Obito asks as Naruto loudly complains about how he is never invited to anything and that his dad never spends time with him.

"Yeah, Onoki has three apprentices that he adores," Kakashi says, wincing when Kushina screams back something intangible.

Obito gestures to the file and Kakashi hands it over to him accordingly. Obito opens it and quickly reads the tiny biographies that the Leaf has compiled for them.

"Kurotsuchi," Kakashi says as Obito reads. Rin stands beside Kakashi to eavesdrop on the conversation as well. "Akatsuchi, and Deidara."

"Granddaughter and two orphans," Obito muses, turning the pages.

"Granddaughter is without a doubt his favorite," Kakashi says.

The three of them take a step backward when Kushina raises her hand, wind picking up at the mere action. Naruto lets out a shriek and Minato puts him down on the ground.

"It says here Deidara is his star pupil," Obito observes. He has never seen Deidara before, only ever hearing about him. Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi are not strangers to him.

"Yeah," Kakashi says, ducking when Naruto launches himself at him. The kid overshoots and then makes a sharp turn back toward his father. "He stole Iwagakure's kinjutsu and was caught before he could desert the village, but Onoki seemed proud that he managed to do it in the first place and let him experiment with his clay bombs. Kid's a captain of the Explosive Corps."

Obito nods, eye obsessing over every detail of Deidara's portrait accompanying the file. "A star pupil indeed," he marvels.

"When do you think they'll be done?" Rin asks.

"Give it a minute," Kakashi replies.

Obito closes the file and hands it back to Kakashi.

"You're not going," Kushina says, holding her son by his legs.

Naruto hangs, upside-down, and crosses his arms.

"Well, it seems like it settled quite nicely," Obito says. "Nothing's broken this time."

Something collapses behind them.

"What was that?" Rin asks.

"Nothing!" Minato exclaims. "Come on, team. Let's go."

Minato ushers all three of them out the gates and they all give a hurried goodbye to Kushina and Naruto.

"What just happened?" Obito asks when they're a bit further out.

"It's better to remain clueless," Kakashi says.

Minato lets out a nervous laugh and his former students all give him a look. They travel along the main road that leads to Konohagakure for a while before they break away from the path, entering the wilderness and leaping on the trees.

It's going to take a while to get there but Obito already has a feeling that the meeting is going to go great.


Hey guys, Red here!

This is beta'd by AO3 user Dani_ATN.

Yes, a new series to start. What a day, what a day! I'm not sure what I have planned for this, actually. I'm just going to wing it, so I hope you're going to enjoy this ride as much as I would (probably). :)

Hit me up on Tumblr (redskiez dot net) for more information, updates, and generally similar shenanigans! I am also currently accepting prompts if you want to have some T/ObiDei written!

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