Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto does.
Let 'em Come
Chapter 1: Let the Games Begin
This is the way it goes. Life finally seems to be heading on the right course; the one that was meant just for you. You surprise yourself by obtaining things you never even pretended to have a chance of getting. All the hate escapes from your mind, leaving only the great and good thoughts behind. Your chest feels lighter and you even have a bounce in your step (When no one's looking, of course). Worry becomes an abstract idea that can only be conjured forth by the insane. You even get along with your semi deranged family.
Then it hits you from your blind side. Bang! There goes all you have. A new crushing weight is placed on your shoulders. Suddenly you regard even the shadows at your feet with an uneasy paranoia. What family members? Surely you must not mean those crazed psychos that always seem to pop up at the worst possible moments. Karma does such a U-turn that you end up with whiplash and feeling like a blown up Barbie doll.
Before life was comparable with being up a creek without a paddle or a boat, surrounded by alligators, 3 feet from a 10 story waterfall while not being able to swim; I found life to be great. Sure, I was an orphan. I lived with my three youngest cousins and an uncle who might have smelled a bit too many stray chemicals in his day. We all had to have jobs to help pay bills and it was a rare night that I got to hang out at the arcade. My grades weren't perfect and my math teacher had it out for me. Despite it all, I doubt I could have been happier. I had my family, friends, my eyesight and my secret stash of pocky. I couldn't fault my thinking that life could not get any better.
I mean, I was right. Life only got worse after that. I don't know them personally but Fate, Destiny, and Lady Luck are some seriously demented wenches.
"Obito, you awake?" Instead of answering the call politely, I merely ignored it in favor of staring at my ceiling. The blank, whitewashed plaster looked back at me. I trained my eyes into a fierce glare but the stupid thing refused to give me any ideas. Falsifying the temperature the thermometer would read was out. A shudder shook my shoulders as the memory of Uncle Kagami's threat- no, promise floated to the surface of my mind. The man had sworn up and down that the next time my temperature read 101 degrees Fahrenheit he would retake said temperature. His only exception had been that the thermometer would be shoved into a place where the sun should and would never shine.
"Seriously, Itachi will kill me if I don't get you up. " My doorknob rattled but it only made me smile. Did the little idiot think I wasn't smart enough to lock my door? I stretched my arms above my head, having to bend them mid-stretch to avoid hitting my headboard. For a moment I forgot my door shaking cousin in favor of remembering a conversation I had once with my older cousin, Izuna.
"My knuckles are bruised because of my headboard." Izuna had simply stared at me, seemingly forgetting the busy café that surrounded us. His hand was still reaching for the coffee between us as he silently mouthed my sentence back at me. Normally I would have snapped at him and took off because who wants to deal with stupid people when they're furious? I bit my tongue and lowered my gaze to the lemon colored table we sat at instead. Izuna wasn't like the others and I had no right treating him as if he was. "Yes," I sighed. "My headboard's out to get me."
A contemplative look overtook my cousin's normally relaxed features as he finally took a sip of his drink. I continued to watch him with my head bowed, not missing the quick flicker of emotion in his nearly black eyes. Izuna sat up a little straighter with his gaze now locked on the honey brown liquid in his cup. "This headboard," he began with a steady voice," you wouldn't have gotten it from Kagami, would you?" An ebony eyebrow shot up in surprise before I shifted in my seat. The way he kept avoiding looking at me had set me on edge. I nodded once, confirming that Uncle Kagami was the one to give me such a thing.
The corner of his mouth twitched suspiciously as he continued his line of questioning. "Is it made of dark cherry wood?"
"Yes and it has a creepy little fan thing carved into the side of it. What's with all these questions?" Izuna met my gaze with a strained look. I watched on silently as my second eldest and most respected cousin broke down into a fit of laughter. Gray-black strands of hair fell into his eyes as he shook, one arm wrapping around his stomach while the other pounded on the table top. I honestly had no idea why he was laughing and I found confusion filling the place my anger had been dwelling when I had first spotted him through the frosted Café window.
After an eternity of listening to Izuna's snorts and chuckles, he seemed to finally realize that I wasn't privy to this inside joke of his. He sniffed back some tears and regained his former posture. For a split second he paused, obviously trying to resist the twitching of his lips and not end up breaking out in irritating laughter a second time. Then his face relaxed once again. "Obito, that headboard and probably the entire bed used to belong to Madara." Izuna stopped, as if expecting that this piece of information would make everything clear to me. He waited, staring me down. I just sat there, silent.
"Madara," He repeated his big brother's name like it was the punch-line to a fantastic joke that I was just not getting. I continued with my blank stare, starting to find some entertainment at his expense. Izuna sighed heavily. "He used to wake up the house with his screaming in the morning, usually complaining about his headboard trying to kill him." He snatched up his cup, taking a deep gulp of the cooling drink, and then added something under his breath. "He also lost his virginity in that bed."
The banging of my bedroom door woke me from my memories. I zeroed in on the image of my youngest cousin sitting on one knee just outside my doorway, two pieces of metal sitting in his pale hands. His deep brown eyes wondered over my domain as he slowly stood up, pocketing his tools. His blue tinted dark hair was sticking out in its normal duck-ass fashion, bangs shifted to cover his left eye. A scowl marred his face as he met my glare head on. "Sasuke," I growled quietly.
Our youngest Uchiha placed both his hands on his narrow hips. "Obito, are you having an identity crisis?" His tone was plain, reminding me much of his older brother. When Itachi spoke, there was never any inflection, making him sound like a robot. Sasuke had mostly mastered his brother's way of speaking but he still wore his heart on his sleeve. His face made the poor boy such an open book that even the illiterate could read him.
"What are you taking about? I am not having an identity crisis." Unlike the little lock-picking punk, my irritation was obvious in both my expression and tone.
He leaned against my door way, crossing his arms with a very self-satisfied look about him. "Well, you're living in a pig sty so I just assumed you thought you were a pig." Sasuke faked a worried look, holding one of his hands to his mouth in mock concern.
I sat up in bed sharply, my anger rising. This only seemed to amuse him more and, in turn, pissed me off more. It took nothing but a moment for my brain to produce an acceptable come-back. "Whatever you say, Duck-ass," I ran a hand through my spiky locks carelessly, watching his reaction carefully.
A rather pleasing muscle spasm took up residence in Sasuke's right eye. His fingers dug deeply into his off-white thermal as his teeth ground against each other. My smirk of victory was short lived as the kid shot back, "Incompetent moron."
Jumping to my feet, I growled right back at the little prick. "Shut up, Sas-gay!"
He met me in the middle of my thoroughly trashed bedroom. "At least I'm proud to admit it! You're so far in the closet that you're in fucking Narnia."
"I'm not gay! And even if I was, at least I would top, unlike you, Sas-UKE"
Sasuke barred his teeth at me before jumping up and burying his hands into my midnight black locks. His, no doubt pedicured, nails dug into my scalp as he pulled me down to his level, screaming in my face, "I do not bottom, you should-be drop-out!"
My arms wrapped around his thin waist, squeezing him tightly against me. I silently prayed the little shit would squash like the cockroach he was. His screams were reduced to groans of pain as he did the only thing he could do, tear my damn hair out.
"Oh my giggling Sponge Bob balloons, incest!" The manly screech put an instant halt to our movements. I glanced over Sasuke's shoulder to spot the one and only Tobi Uchiha. He was grasping at his chest, orange t-shirt clenched between his fingers. Tobi's mismatching eyes were wide as he stared at me and Sasuke. "My eyes," screamed the odd ball as he raced away from us, "My virgin eyes!"
A numbing pain shot up my leg, causing me to gasp and shove Sasuke away from me. My toes throbbed as he glared at me. "Great! Now he probably thinks we were," he stumbled to a halt as pink stole across his cheeks. Turning around sharply, the blue haired maniac ran after our confused cousin. I, meanwhile, stood with my mouth hanging open. He thought this whole mess was my fault? Did he need glasses like the rest of our family?
Any dreams I had of not going to school were eliminated as my uncle Kagami waltz past my doorway. He paused only long enough to glance in before parting with the words, "You'll clean up this mess after school, O.U." Angrily, I snatched up the nearest pair of jeans and pulled them on. I tossed my holey wife beater on my bed, knowing that it was still clean enough to be worn for one more night. It was during my search for a decent shirt that I heard it.
The loud thud of a body being shoved off a bed was followed by indignant screams of "Where are the beautiful women" and "Liar!" I could clearly picture Uncle Kagami cackling like a witch while my poor cousin wailed for mercy. Knowing that if I didn't hurry I would be stuck driving Shisui to school, I grabbed the closest t-shirt and shoved it over my head. A glance at my dusty mirror and I knew that I had somehow ended up in a pair of Shisui's tight shredded jeans and one of Tobi's obnoxiously orange shirts with the words 'I'm a Ninja!' on it. Not even bothering to worry about that unfortunate fact, I barged through my door way and dashed down the hall.
Upon first inspection of the kitchen, I quickly noted that all the other Uchiha had abandoned me. However, somebody (most likely Tobi) had placed a plate of left over toast in the center of our round kitchen table. The two golden slices of buttered toast seemed to glow from their perch upon the crumb covered plate. Now, I knew that the second piece was for Shisui but my stomach rebelled against the idea. If he thought for a moment that he could wake up last and still get a meal and a ride, then he would be sorely disappointed. My conscious barely nudged me as I grabbed the toast and began to stuff it down my throat.
I ignored the bite of gravel under my sock covered feet as I dug through my backpack, which had been considerately placed beside the front door, grinning like a mad man when I found my keys. The beat up, red guitar keychain clinked happily against my house key as I unlocked my 7+ year old, silver Toyota. My black bag made a soft thud sound upon impact with the passenger's seat and I automatically slipped my feet into my grey wanna-be converse shoes. My car coughed to life and I crushed it into reverse the same second that the front door slammed open.
The panicked expression on my little cousin's face was priceless with his hands holding up the pants he wore and his sneakers thrown over his shoulder, connected by their tied laces. His curly hair was still flat on one side from sleep and the plain gray shirt he wore was backwards and inside out. He didn't hesitate in charging off of the door step and running at my car. It was an ongoing deal between us that if he managed to open one of the doors before I hit the road I'd give him a ride. I smirked at him as I backed up, not for the first time wishing my car could go from 0 to 40 mph in 5 seconds. Shisui cried out in victory as he caught the door handle and opened the door behind the driver's seat. He knew that I still wouldn't actually stop for him so he quickly threw himself in, closing the door with a slam.
"Damn it, you just couldn't wait for me like a good older cousin, could you Obito?" He panted quietly as he shoved my bag to the floor and climbed into the front passenger's seat. My response was to hide my smile as I turned left sharply, causing him to crash into the door before he could sit down properly. Shisui cried out in surprise as his temple bounced off the window and he dropped into the seat. It was a true testament to how often this happened that he didn't bother to try to cuss me out or threaten me. All I got for my trouble was a simple, "I hate you."
"Aw, don't be like that, Shi-shi. You know you love me," my voice was overly sweet as I chanced ruffling his hair. Out of my entire family the person I got along with most and, consequently, messed with the most was Shisui. That probably had to do with the fact that I could never get a worthwhile response from Itachi and Sasuke rubbed me the wrong way just by walking into the same room. Secretly, I thought Itachi sent Sasuke to talk to me just for his own entertainment but that would mean that Itachi Uchiha had feelings. The day that boy showed any type of emotion would be the same day that Shisui became asexual and I became a responsible adult.
"Yea, and see what it's gotten me?" If I didn't know to look for it, I would have missed the very discrete pout he wore as he began to shove on his red sneakers. Sighing softly, I opened the glove box, narrowly missing Shisui's face in the process and began to dig around. A car behind me honked as the stop light turned green but I ignored it in favor of pulling out a thin, long red box. In a fashion that could only come from repeating a motion time and time again, I drove forward with my eyes on the road and flipped the top off the box with my thumb. The soft scent of chocolate reached my nose, my mouth watering in preparation. I pulled a single stick out with my teeth before offering the box to Shisui.
Before I could taste the indescribable taste of pocky I found arms wrapped around my middle and a 16 year old boy sobbing on my shoulder. Shisui's curly hair tickled my ear and I swerved dangerously in shock as I felt real tears wetting my shirt. My body tensed of its own accord and I did the only thing I could think to do; I patted his back awkwardly. It wasn't that I didn't love my cousin because on some level I loved everyone, even Sasuke. It was the simple fact that I was not used to being the one to comfort. That was Izuna's job. I was supposed to be the sarcastic jerk you tried to avoid. That was when a disturbing thought hit me; did I really show my true feelings so little that something as simple as sharing my pocky could bring the person closest to me to tears?
"Shit, Shisui. You know I love you, right?" A rather disgruntled noise came from my shoulder and I rolled my eyes before shifting my arm so that I was half hugging my brat of a cousin, "You're like the little brother I never got to have, so please, stop crying already. We're almost at school." Shisui shook but managed to pull himself away from my now soaked shoulder. I glanced at him, noticing how red his eyes were and the tear streaks that ran across his lightly tanned cheeks. Then I saw the snot coming out of his nose and couldn't help but be disgusted at the idea of it being on my shirt.
"Man Obito, you're like my big brother, I love you man!" Shisui proceed to break down in tears again and I growled before shoving him back into his seat. Obviously he found something funny about my expression because he started laughing like a lunatic.
"I have got to find some new friends," I mumbled half-heartily as I pulled into the parking lot next to our school. Tobirama Academy was unlike any 'academy' one might find elsewhere in the world. For one thing, no one had to wear a uniform and for another our principal was voted into office by the teacher's union. There was a new election for the position once every school year and it more often than not ended badly for the students because whoever did not get the job was still required to work as a normal teacher. Naturally they took out their anger on the students.
I stole my bag out from under Shisui's feet and placed the box of pocky within it, knowing that it was no longer safe in my glove box. Routine had me locking my door the same moment I stepped onto the pavement and Shisui was quick to follow my example. I flashed him a small smile before quickly racing towards my locker. I didn't get far as the reason why I disliked arriving at school with Shisui came in the form of a fangirlish shriek. "Shi honey, is that you, baby?"
Glancing back, I noticed the look of horror on my cousin's face as a nameless chick jumped him. Her caked on make-up came off as she rubbed her cheek against his like some type of cat in heat. Actually, she probably was very much like a cat in heat. I met Shisui's light brown eyes and wondered why the hell I was being so nice toady. Summoning my best I'm-not-Obito voice, I shouted out, "Oh my gawd, Itachi is taking his shirt off by the gym!" I added in a high pitched scream for good measure. One would think everyone would be looking at me like I was some kind of nut, but, for some reason or another, everyone began to push through the front doors of the school, all heading towards the gym; even most of the guys. Shisui shot me a teary eyed grin and I ran a hand through my hair roughly, stalking off towards my locker.
I cursed softly under my breath as my mind ran over the new piece of insight I had picked up in the car. If I was nicer to people, maybe they wouldn't all freak out like Shisui had. My hand grasped the dial on the lock of my locker and began to twist it that way and that. The lock was actually broken and it was through habit that I used the dial at all. Of course, when the halls were packed I used my pretend combo but that was just so people didn't realize that they could break into my locker by yanking it open. I refocused on the sky blue metal in front of my face as the inside of my locker was revealed. It had the standard small shelve space at the very top and a double hook for a backpack and a jacket. With mechanical movements, I hung up my bag and pulled out the text books for my morning classes.
Fortunately, my first class was English with Sarutobi so I wouldn't have to start overusing my brain first thing in the morning. With a slam, I shut my locker and headed for the classroom I would spend the next 7 hours in. That was another thing about Tobirama Academy; the teachers were the ones who moved from room to room during the small breaks between classes. Of course, it made sneaking around much harder but I never had a reason to even bother trying to escape. Then again, after Sarutobi I would have to deal with Shimura. Danzo Shimura was the one teacher that generally was pissy towards every student every day of the year. Though, the fact he had lost to Sarutobi's favorite student Tsunade Senju for the position of principal meant he was sure to be extra annoyed and dramatic. A thing one should know about the student body was that while we called Tsunade by her first name because she insisted and no one wanted to be on her bad side, we called Danzo by his first name purely because it ticked him off, which most of us thought was funny.
One look at the many faces of my classmates told me that they had found out that Itachi in fact did not remove his shirt at school this morning. Smothering the urge to smirk at their pitiful disappointment, I moved to my designated seat in the third row, fifth seat from the right. My books were easily placed in the metal basket under my chair and I slouched in my seat, waiting for the bell to ring. Slowly my classmates took to their chairs while I focused on figuring out if by chance the desk to my left had been filled in with a transfer student or something like that. When Sarutobi strolled into class I realized that no such person had arrived. Instead, I sat up a little straighter and took in the old man's appearance. Recently he had been looking a little less lively and the rumor mill had claimed that he was sick, possibly dying.
His grayed hair stuck outwards in its typical fashion and his small eyes were still as sharp as always. He wore an off-white button down with a fiery red tie; his slacks were black as he seemed to prefer them to be. Over his shoulder was a beige messenger's bag that his grandson had convinced him to use when a kid fell on his briefcase and broke it. Sarutobi spared us a smile in greeting before he set his bag down and began to write on the black board. Despite recent advances in the school district Tobirama Academy was in the middle of, the school insisted on sticking to such ancient things as black boards. "Good morning class, before we begin, I'd like to introduce you to a new student of ours," Sarutobi paused and nodded at the door.
A fingerless black gloved hand slid the lemon colored door open and in stepped one of the odder people I had ever met. His hair was silver and defied the laws of gravity by sticking out in spikes. Over the lower half of his face he wore one of those cloth masks you only saw ninjas wearing on TV. Almost completely black eyes were the only piece of his face I could see and they were as sharp as Sarutobi's. Mechanically, he walked to our beloved teacher's side and turned towards the class. "This is Kakashi Hatake, "Sarutobi still had his warm smile on his lips and he motioned at the class but talked to Kakashi, "go and take the last empty seat, will you?"
Everyone knew he had no choice but to sit beside me since it was the last desk. Naturally I got dirty looks from some of the girls to which I only rolled my eyes. Kakashi sat stiffly in the chair beside me, his arms resting on the desk and his back ramrod straight. What was up with this kid? Did he just get discharged from Hashirama Military Academy or something? The memory of Shisui's antics this morning reminded me of the fact that I had decided to try being nicer to others. Mentally wanting nothing more than to slam my head into my desk, I turned towards the new kid while Sarutobi continued to finish writing notes on the board. In a hushed tone, I spoke, "Hey, my name's Obito."
Kakashi didn't react and for a moment I thought he might not have heard me, but then he slowly turned his head in my direction just enough for me to see both his eyes. He looked like he was sizing me up before his eyes held a look of disdain and he scoffed at me. I could feel the twitching of my left eyebrow as I faced the front of the class again, my teeth grinding together. Screw being nice, if the guy was going to be an asshole, than let the games begin!
Author's note: Yep. I started another story and it takes place in a more modern world. In a way, this story is a test to see if I can write whole chapters without having to use line breaks. I hope you readers enjoyed this chapter because I did. Ah, poor Obito. I know I wouldn't enjoy sleeping in the bed Madara lost his virginity in. XD