Obito is back, Kakashi is still guilty and they basically get most of the screen time.

Also, I took a rant that I put in this chapter from Tumblr 'cause it fit with the story. Bless Tumblr.


One year and six months.

That's how long it has been since Obito died. Since he sacrificed his own life to save Kakashi. One year and six months where Kakashi wasn't living.

He existed. Get up, train, take a mission or two, eat- when and if he remembered to- then sleep plagued with nightmares. Rinse and repeat. Avoiding all human contact outside of his team for the day. Going to the KIA Stone more than he went to anywhere else. Putting flowers on a lone grave.

He existed, even if he refused to live.

Rin often brought him food, checked to see his health. Minato-sensei had been elected Hokage but he found the time to see his development, making sure to have Kushina tell him about him. Kushina herself usually dragged him to get food together, forcing him to interact with people. Even the Uchiha Clan Head's family- Fugaku, Mikoto and Itachi- were concerned about him, sparing some of their time to help him train his, Obito's,sharingan.

A rustle among the leaves behind him forced him to turn around, full on alert and a kunai firmly in his grip.

A light breeze passed and the already grey sky became even darker, rain staring to fall at a fast pace.

"Who is there?!" he yelled, having spotted a shadow of someone hidden in the darkness of the trees.

Their smell seemed familiar, their chakra wasn't. Kakashi had never felt such a cold chakra.

He was about to repeat himself when the shadow stepped out of the darkness, head hung low and their hair covering their face, their steps unsure. A ragged cloak covered their trembling body, barefoot against the cold of early winter and obviously unharmed.

No one moved, then the not-stranger raised their head, revealing scarred skin and a bandaged eye.

Kakashi knew him. But he also knew that he was dead.

"...kai."…."Kai."…."KAI!" Kakashi raised his crooked headband, revealing a spinning sharingan, as he tried- and failed- to release what could only be a cruel genjutsu.

Only that the genjutsu didn't fade. It was still there.

A remote part of his mind kept suggesting he was real. Kakashi was afraid to trust it.

Meanwhile, the not-stranger had watched. Never moving, never speaking, never taking his eyes off of the other, his only eye refusing to cry.

Their eyes met.

"Hey, Kakashi…" he was hesitant, afraid "I've had a really bad day and it always makes me feel better to see a pretty guy smile….So, would you smile for me?"

He swayed, his legs giving out under his weight and started to fall until Kakashi caught him, strong arms wrapped to secure him up.

Tears started to fall.

"….You are late."

"….Sorry, I got lost in the road of life."

But after one year and half, they were both finally smiling.


News of Obito's return spread around the village like wildfire, Team Minato and his other age mates finding a few hours to visit him at the hospital where he'd been staying since he came back.

Even if only his former teammates and Kushina had been present when the medic had told them of his health state- undernourishment, frost bite, chakra irregularity due to his right side, his right side still not having fully adapted to his body and a small infection on his left eye socket with only a few bruises and minor broken bones but all around nothing deadly- even someone thick-headed like Anko had noticed his poor health. The medics had given him a proper surgery, to help the assimilation process of his 'white cells', as they called them (Obito didn't trust them enough to tell them what exactly those cells where), and to reduce the scarring among other things so now people could look at his face without feeling the need to throw up.

Obito was mostly thankful nobody was asking about his last eighteen months.

It took him a few months to be able to leave the hospital but he couldn't even enjoy it because it meant that now he had to deal with the clan and the Uchiha Elders. Fuck them.

The only pro was Kakashi. Even after being separated he still loved him.


"Obito."

"Kakashi."

The atmosphere was awkward, none was meeting the other's eyes.

"How...how are you?"

"I'm fine. Therapy is going okay and I'll be able to go back to active duty in a few months. You?"

"...I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For everything. It's- it's my fault this happened. If I hadn't been so stuck in my ways, if I had listened, you wouldn't have- I'm sorry."

Kakashi had his head bowed, unable to see Obito's expression morph into shock and guilt.

"Kakashi, stop. Just stop it. Nothing of what happened is your fault. It was my choice."

"You still got hurt because of me! Had I not been a total asshole, all of this would have not happened!"

"You don't know that."

Silence fell again, before Kakashi spoke again.

"I was never exactly nice, to you or to others, and yet you…why?"

"Because of you, I laughed a little harder, cried a little less, and smiled a lot more."

Kakashi finally looked up and their eyes met.

"What… do you mean?" he croaked, hesitant.

"… I was never welcomed among the Clan. Only Mikoto-baasan and her family and a few others were nice to me, never judging my choices and willing to help whenever I needed it, but for the others I was just the useless orphan kid that could never do anything right. You, Rin, Minato-sensei and Kushina-san… you guys were…" Obito hesitated, his doubts and insecurities flooding his mind, his lone eye darting from Kakashi to anywhere else in the room.

"What?" Kakashi asked, quiet "What were we?"

"You always were my family. You still are."


Flash forward a few months and Obito was out of the hospital, injuries completely healed and reinstated as an active shinobi but with one last issue to face: his Clan. Or, more accurately, the Clan Elders that never agreed on him giving Kakashi his eye and they had raged at him refusing to 'take it back'. They had scheduled a meeting for a week after his return to active duty, on a quiet day of February and Obito didn't know if he really should feel intimidated- let alone threatened- by the mild glares a few decrepit assholes where giving him. Fugaku was the only one who looked annoyed at the unnecessary meeting.

'I survived down in that cave for more than a full year with that monster. I sure as hell am not going to back down here.'

"Uchiha Obito, registration number 010886; rank: chuunin. Supposedly died during a sabotage mission at Kannabi Bridge twenty-one months ago after you saved the life of one of your teammates, Hatake Kakashi, and gave him your left eye. However, you had awakened your Sharingan earlier during that mission, two tomoes in each eye, and as a consequence, now Hatake Kakashi possesses one of our eyes. That is not acceptable. You will take that eye back and this is an order. Are we clear?" the Elder who spoke was an eighty-something years old man that Obito has always disliked for a reason or another and said man was as arrogant as he was stupid. So, a lot.

"If I may, I think that we are forgetting something important here," he interjected, not at all fazed by the pathetic speech of said man.

Another elder, a woman not that much younger than the first, sneered "And pray tell, what could be so important you feel so entitled to say?"

Fugaku looked rather embarassed but he also spotted his teammates- he asked them to be present for this but to keep it a secret- that were giving him the thumbs-up.

"Consent and body rights are actual things that exist," he said, voice firm but calm.

"What does that anything to do with this, boy?" this time it was a bald man with a frail build who was also blind on an eye and with few good teeth.

He raised an eyebrow, hoping the question was a joke " Long story short, none of you has the right to order me around or to pretend I do something regarding my body that goes against what I want. You can't force me to 'take back' the eye I gave Kakashi. If you were to knock me out and to force someone to make the transplant, you all would be put in prison for going against my consent."

The five elders, two still staying silent, bristled with indignation and maybe even surprise.

"I don't think you understand the position you are in, child. We are not asking, we are ordering you to take back what is rightfully yours!"

"What I'm saying is that human beings have a right to decide what happens to their own bodies, even if that decision results in the death of someone or something else. For example, by law, you cannot be forced to donate one of your kidneys or part of your liver to someone who needs it. You cannot be forced to give blood. Even if you are the only person with a certain blood type and your refusal will mean the death of someone else- maybe a family member, maybe your child- if you refuse, that is your right as a human being and no court can prosecute you for murder. You, and only you, are the final arbiter of what happens to your body, and if you decide the risks are too great, or simply do not want to, the right to refuse to help is absolute.

What you are implying is that bodily autonomy ought to be less important than saving someone's life; or, in this case, that what you want- something that has no thing to do with you or your bodies but only with a preconcept you grew up obsessing on- is more important with what I consent to, " he explained, hoping to have made himself clear. Judging by the elders' expressions, he didn't.

He sighed.

"Let's put it into context. You have a kidney that's a perfect match to someone in the hospital- let's call him Fred- who will die in the next week if he doesn't get it. For your own personal reasons, you do not wish to have your kidney removed. Your reasons aren't material to this particular argument, but they can range anywhere from your phobia of hospitals to your allergy to most kinds of anesthesia, to a history of kidney disease in your family that may mean you will need that extra kidney one day or to the simple fact that you do not wish to give this kidney at this time. The point is: you do not consent.

If life is considered more important than bodily autonomy, then the law can force you to be taken to the hospital against your will, be sedated against your will, cut open against your will, and have your organ removed against your will. You may be tied down to the bed; you may be locked in a room and not allowed to leave until you agree to the operation. You may be shown tapes of Fred and his family over and over and over again. But however it happens, it happens without your continuous consent. This isn't Fred's fault- he doesn't even know you exist, he has no idea that this is happening, and maybe he would be horrified if he knew and would ask them to stop. But it's happening because life, in this universe, is more important than bodily autonomy. Namely, Fred's life is more important than your bodily autonomy."

He paused, letting the words sink.

"Now put yourself back in the world we live in- you still have that kidney that's perfect for our Fred in the hospital who needs it within a week, otherwise he'll die. If you refuse, for whatever reason, the result is that Fred does, in fact, die. But Fred has not been punished, Fred wasn't given a death sentence. The decision you made had nothing to do with punishing Fred; it was about your health, your body, your life. Certainly people might be angry that you didn't give Fred the kidney that he needed, but just because he needed it to survive did not mean he had a right to it that trumped yours. No matter what reason you had, your bodily autonomy was more important than his need.

Now, if you think that the world where life should be more important than bodily autonomy is the one we ought to live in, then we're going to have to just agree to disagree, because I find that a fucking Orwellian nightmare of the highest order.

If, however, you agree that it's better that we live in a world where someone else doesn't get to make the decision about what happens to you based on the need of some third person, then I'd like to welcome you to the pro-choice movement, because congratulations- you're pro-choice."

He pinned them down with a glance, not a sound could be heard in the meeting room. Fugaku looked pleased, like a student who managed to outsmart his teacher, his teammates showed surprise and pride. The Elders, however, were another story: they looked furious.

The first Elder got out of his initial shock and started yelling "You gave away our precious eye to the son of the man that caused the war! You do not get a choice in this, child. You do not have the right to choose what you merely think it's right or wrong. How could you know anyway? You are just a failure that has been nothing but a disappointment and embarassement for us all! You constantly tainted the Uchiha name with your idiocy and we refuse to allow you to keep it up! YOU. WILL. TAKE. THAT. EYE. BACK."

Obito looked at him in the eye, noting Kakashi's hurt expression "No. No, I won't."

"Then-"

The other elders, probably caught on on what their 'leader' was about to say, tried to stop him.

"- you are no longer an Uchiha!"

The sound of a pen dropping was all they heard, mouths open and widened eyes all set on Obito.

But Obito- Obito smiled.

'Bingo'

"Then, I renounce to my rights to have the Clan as a financial and political support through my life, I renounce to wear the Clan Emblem on my person and possessions, and I renounce to use the Uchiha name as my own and everything else that it entails. I will be unchained to the Clan and I will live on my own, by my own rules and means and the Clan will not be able to demand of me nothing I do not wish for. With this Oath, I now lose the right to refer to the Clan as family and I cut my connection to it."

He spoke loud and clear, waited a few moments for them to understand what he said and took off his jacket- the only clothing with a Clan Symbol on it- and with a kunai he tore it to pieces, letting it fall to the ground.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to start cleaning house."

He walked out of the room, stepping over his jacket's pieces and never looking back.


Only a few weeks after the meeting, he was settling down in a small apartment with Kakashi there to help, and the two worked to put the forniture on its place.

It didn't take long to finish, they where shinobi after all, and they soon found themselves having small talk over a cup of tea.

"You did that on purpose," Kakashi stated, matter-of-factly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he answered, smiling.

"The meeting. For some reason you lead the Elder into kicking you out of the Clan."

"Aah, that. It was something I've been trying to do for a while, I just caught the opportunity."

"But… why? You could have just agreed on taking back the eye."

Obito looked at him, noticing the other's insecurities "Well, there are a few reasons. One, I choose to give you that eye. It was my choice and I wasn't about to take it back 'cause an old asshole demanded me to. Two." He uncovered his left eye, where Kakashi expected to see an empty eye socket, that instead had a blanc eye. No iris or pupil, just white sclera. "Two, I have this."

"What-" he started to ask, but Obito beat him to it "I don't- can't tell you now. Maybe one day, but not now. Please."

"Okay, okay, I won't ask."

"Thanks. Then, three: you."

"M- me?! What the hell do you mean?"

"You… you have always been a weakness for me. I never cared about that though."

"A… weakness. It doesn't make sense! People stay away from their weaknesses! They don't save their lives or keep them close!"

"Yeah, but you're my favourite weakness." he smiled "I am okay with you being my weakness, so don't beat yourself up over this, 'kay?"

That day, Kakashi went home with his cheeks flushed, being more thankful than ever that he wore a mask.


'Kakashi's hair...glows. What. The. Fuck.' Obito didn't really remembered how they ended up in that situation, but he now wished he had a camera.

They were currently in the forest, well past sunset, as they had trained together for most of the day and now the sky was dark- which made it difficult for them to see where they where going. Being nearly out of chakra meant that they couldn't really use their shared Sharingan, least they passed out form chakra exhaustion practically in the middle of nowhere.

This turned out to be a problem when they couldn't remember if there were any traps or where they could be, which it lead to them actually triggering one of said traps. Thankfully, it was nothing dangerous, just one meant for capture even if it meant that now they were, without kunai, dangling inside a net a few feets above the ground in a tangle of limbs.

Obito was sure that, if he were to translate their positions into something less awkward, he could say that Kakashi was literally sprawled on his lap. They had both agreed on avoiding making the situation worse, to just wait until morning came and try to rest a bit.

Obito could just not look away from Kakashi's glowing hair.

"Are you the moon? Because even when it's dark, you still seem to shine."

"Now it's not the moment Obito!"

"It's always the moment if you can turn it into one!"


In the two months after Obito's return to Konoha, the Third Ninja War finally came to an end with their village on the winning side. Treaties were signed and Minato cemented his role as Hokage with managing to find an agreement with even the most reluctant leaders, not even forgetting the smaller countries and lands.

The Hokage Council was changed, the Advisors- who now were Nara Shikaku and Uchiha Mikoto, to most people's surprise- took to their new roles with terrifying competence and some Clan policies were put into questioning.

While all this was done, Obito was able to finally cut his ties to the Uchiha, Kakashi started healing a wound he thought he would have always had to carry with him and Rin was able to convince a passing Tsunade to take her as an appretice. With the Slug Princess in Konoha, the other two Sannin, Orochimaru and Jiraya reached out to her and they found support in one another.

However, not every evil was defeated: despite Obito's efforts, Zetsu was still alive, even if heavily injured. But this time, in this universe, Konoha was going to come out on top.


This is mostly a chapter to gett the story moving, explaining a few things and introducing a few subtle others and, while there ARE pick-up lines, they aren't really the focus.

Next chapter has already most pick-up lines decided and I just have to re-read the suggestions in the comments to see if I can fit them in the story and then I'll start writing.

I don't have a clue to when next chapter will come out. It could be a month like it could take all summer, but I'm also writing a few other AUs that I hope to be able to turn into actual One-Shots (even if I doubt it) so I think I'll soon publish another story or two. Maybe. Hopefully.

P.S. Should I put my Tumblr here? 'cause think I'm going to do some art for my stories and I'd like to chat with people but I honestly don't know if you'd be interested...