Fandom: Naruto
Title: Kuro Kiba
Author: hana-akira AKA rurichi
Character: Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Hikaku
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship
Rating: 20+
Warning: OOC, AU, implied mentions of an older man liking a younger man
Prompt: Time travel. After dying, Obito is transported to the past through unknown means, and becomes friends with someone who's from his clan.
Summary: Kuro Kiba. Black Fang. Otherwise known as one Uchiha Obito who's somehow time traveled back to the time of the Clan Wars after he'd died, and one Uchiha Hikaku's friend. – —Time travel, AU, OOC, Obito&Hikaku, Implied?Tobirama/Obito, Drabble-ish
A/N: I'm not particularly sure whether I'm going to allow Obito have the Sharingan or not. He may have an Uchiha body and blood, but he has Kakashi's eye.
"Character talking."
'Character thinking.'
—
1. A Single Eye that Swam in Black
—
The eye that opened swam in black. It blinked, and before Obito knew it, his left eye, the dark, coal-colored eye that used to be Kakashi's, watered, but didn't quite cry. This is the first thing that Obito feels when he realizes he hadn't died being crushed by falling rocks. The next thing Obito realizes is that he could see—see, even though Kakashi's eye had been slashed, had been blinded, and that therefore he shouldn't be able to see. Wasn't supposed to see the blue, blue sky above him; the thin, white clouds that were like wisps of smoke without fire, the brightly lit sun hanging high. Wasn't supposed to be able to see the back of a man with the Uchiha Clan's symbol on his deep purple shirt, see the man's onyx-colored ponytail, or even the silver-stringed jewelry that dangled from the man's shoulders.
Obito could see when he wasn't supposed to. He could see, he could feel, and he was, without a doubt, alive. Alive when he should've been dead. Obito breathed deeply, smothering the panic that threatened to overtake him, and it was only then that he noticed that he was lying on his back surrounded by fields of lavender, its soothing fragrance wafting through the air.
That was also the same moment that the man standing before him decided to turn towards him.
The man was young, probably in his late teens or his early twenties. Now that Obito could see the man's face, he could see that the man was definitely an Uchiha—that recognizable eye color and the familiar shape of the man's face. Yet something niggled at the back of Obito's mind, as if to say, "You've seen this man before," even though Obito distinctly knew that he had never met the taller man before in his entire life.
"—ey. Hey, can you hear me? Are you alright?" the older man asked, concern and worry shown faintly on his face even as he tried to hide it. The man was above him, bent slightly down, almost hovering yet still keeping a distance as if he was afraid that Obito would suddenly lash out. Obito blinked momentarily, still disoriented from the fact that he was alive and could actually see (even if it was only from one eye), before he motioned for the man to move away. The man backed a little and straightened himself as Obito propped himself up into a sitting position.
"I'm… fine. But who in the world are you?" Obito responded, his mind still trying to figure out how he was in a field of lavender instead of the forest he had been in previously. He needed information, and the Uchiha that was in front of him was probably his only source. The man seemed to uncomfortably smiled (a sign that Obito took to mean that the man wasn't as confident as he portrayed himself to be) before he once again spoke.
"I'm Hikaku. Uchiha Hikaku. I found you here and bandaged the right side of your face. What's your name?"
Obito recognized that name, that face and those clothes. Had seen the man in the Clan Archives when he had once helped clean it when he was much younger. He knew who the man was, even if the man didn't know him. It explained everything and nothing at the same time, though. It explained why he felt some gauze carefully wrapped over his empty right eye socket, but it didn't explain whether he was in an after-life of some sort and that Hikaku just so happened to be his guide, or if he was stuck in some ninjutsu or genjutsu of some sort that somehow brought him back to the time of the Clan Wars. It didn't explain what Obito desperately wanted to know: why the man helped him when he didn't even know him, whether Kakashi and Rin were safe, if the mission to destroy Kannabi Bridge had been a success, if Konoha had won the war. The man's words didn't explain what Obito needed to know.
"Obito… just Obito." Obito finally managed to say, his head still reeling in the fact that he was personally meeting one of his dead relatives. A dead relative who didn't know who he was, which probably meant that this wasn't the after-life. Or maybe it was the after-life and his relative was just screwing around with him, but he didn't think Hikaku was the type of person to do that, judging by the expression on the man's face. The older Uchiha male seemed to genuinely care about him even if he kept a cool façade, the man's fingers twitching as if they wanted to check over whether he had any other injuries that needed to be taken care of.
Hikaku smiled again, this time more at ease, saying, "Obito… was it? Would you like to come with me? You seem to be a little lost, and I think I can help you out a little bit." He bent his knees a bit and stretched his right hand towards Obito, a gesture to show good will and to help the younger male up. Obito stared at the hand. He didn't really know what to think, or even what to do. On one hand, the man was offering free help, but on the other, the man was a complete stranger, even if Obito knew that the man was a relative of his. If the man didn't already know that they were family, he probably never will unless Obito himself told him. What if the man had an ulterior motive, a hidden agenda? Obito wasn't so foolish into thinking he could just accept anyone's help without some catch attached to it.
But he was lost. He didn't know where he was and didn't know how he could get back, if he could even get back at that. He was by himself, with only a limited amount of supplies, and could only survive for so long while at the same time trying to adjust to the sight perception he'd have to get used to now. So Obito did the only thing he could do: he took Hikaku's outstretched hand and hoped to hell that the instinct telling him that the other man was trustworthy, that he could be trusted, was as reliable as the time he pushed Kakashi out of the way of the falling rocks.
