Disclaimer: Naruto does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Kishimoto, etc.
Three Little Words (i didn't say)
02. Obito
He could have kissed Nohara Rin that first day, when she handed him his paperwork. Except girls were still kind of gross back then, pretty but alien, so he settled for grinning at her and yelling his thanks as he ran to speak with his cousins.
There are other girls in his class, of course. Prettier, with brightly coloured hair and seemingly sweet words, but Obito never spares them more than a glance. He likes Rin's soft brown hair, her gentle smiles and the high-pitched giggle she makes when she's surprised or nervous.
And then they get put on a genin squad with Hatake Kakashi, the prodigy of the generation. He's already a chunin at that point of course, and a total stuck up asshole about it to boot. Obito doesn't like him, and how he takes up Rin's attention - it's OK that she likes someone else (Obito's willing and ready to do anything to earn hwe affection) but did it have to be Kakashi?
He doesn't say "I love you," when she wraps his hand after an embarrassing shuriken accident, because he doesn't quite know what love means yet, and they have their whole lives ahead of them. They've only just made chunin, there's still jounin and then Obito will become Hokage and Rin will be the best medic nin and he supposes Kakashi can be the head of ANBU.
Except the only one of them who makes it to adulthood is Kakashi.
Obito does whisper, "I love you," as the cave collapses around them (well, just him) but he doesn't think Rin hears him.
Then he wakes up with half a body and one eye and all the hope in the world threatening to burst out of his chest. He will come back and then he and Rin and Kakashi will be a team again.
He comes back and Kakashi has killed Rin and bitterness chokes him, rage and grief obscuring his confusion (because why would Kakashi-?!) and he falls.
Obito will make up for his lost time even if he has to burn the whole world to do it.