The news was too abrupt. Too surreal. How can it possibly happen? To Kakashi and Rin no less?
"They're both dead. We found the girl's body, but the Hatake boy, he's nowhere to be found."
Obito's face paled.
"They must have buried his body somewhere or dumped it in the river."
His hands began to shake with tremendous frustration. The desire to release his wrath to vent wasn't far now.
"We're sorry. We tried to get there soon as possible, but it was too late..."
The raven-haired Uchiha felt an overwhelming weight placed onto his heart - it felt too heavy - like his diaphragm had started to contract harder than usual as his ribcage straggled his heart into place.
A callous hand gripped his left shoulder, lightly applying pressure to ensure his presence was felt. "Obito, calm down. Breathe. Breathe!"
One onyx eye stared straight into his blue sapphire eyes, bewildered; distraught. The blackness of his pupil grew dull, the tone of his skin paled, and his lips trembled as he tried to speak: "S-S-Sense-i…" it was a petty attempt.
Minato clutched onto his shoulder tighter, "Obito; breathe!" his voice was drenched with worry, desperation and anger. But it wasn't for Obito, but for himself. He had let Kakashi and Rin go by themselves, rank be damned he should have accompanied Kakashi. That way he could have prevented their deaths. "Breathe, Obito!" he ordered once more.
Obito flinched back to reality but he still retained the frozen gaze at Minato.
Did he forget to breathe?
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
The room began to spin: clockwise, anticlockwise, then back again. His eyelid grew heavy and soon enough he was met by the black screen which knocked his consciousness out.
'I have lost everything.'
And that moment, Uchiha Obito blacked out.
After two agonizing weeks of staying idle in the miserable hospital, Obito was finally released out of its restricting confines. He was told that he was no longer under stress and is back to perfect health.
It reeked with bullshit; he still hasn't evaded stress nor was he back to perfect health.
Obito dragged his feet as he walked through the streets of Konoha aimlessly. He was aware of the days which had passed since he first received the news, but it still rang freshly in his mind.
"They're both dead. We found the girl's body, but the Hatake boy, he's nowhere to be found."
The shuffling of his feet ceased and he stood in the middle of the crowd his heart felt heavy in his chest again. Clumsily, he clutched onto his shirt and took deep breaths in and out. 'Rin, Kakashi...'
He just wanted everything to disappear, along with him. He wasn't supposed to be here.
Reality was hell.
Who was he kidding? Living was a greater hell than dying.
'The hole in my heart will just keep getting bigger and bigger until it's too large to close it...' His chest tightened as he clutched onto it harder. He was desperate. Oh, so desperate.
Wandering further, his legs forced him to the memorial stone, where his best friends' names were engraved into the stone: Nohara Rin, Hatake Kakashi.
Why couldn't it have been him? Why couldn't it have been him that died?
"Gomen, Rin, Kakashi..." The fourteen-year-old allowed his shaking hand to trace the names of his comrades.
This world was too cruel.
Two weeks before:
Dragging his wounded and exhausted body, Hatake Kakashi collapsed, leaning against the trunk of a tree. New scars embedded and ripped through his uniform. Bruises and open wounds were oblivious to him.
'I'm not going to make it, aren't I? At this rate, Konoha is probably sending out a rescue team to search for me...'
The young jounin bit his lower lip, mismatched eyes narrowed. A scowl appeared under his mask as he thought of the name of his former village.
Konoha.
The name left a bitter taste on the tip of his tongue. He would rip the name to shreds if he could.
Clutching the open wound jagged across his torso, Kakashi stared up at the dark, blackened sky weeping for him.
Rain wasn't going to help him at all...
His eyes were close to clamping shut, then a shadow of... an individual casted over him, and Kakashi forced himself to glance up.
An elderly man with long hair that flowed behind his back, hovered over the weak teen. "...White Fang, isn't it..?" The strange man stared down at Kakashi, with two eyes glaring. Both of his eyes were red - a color Kakashi has familiarized himself with - a sharingan!
"...I'm not White Fang, old man..." Kakashi grimaced. He was awed. Was this old guy an Uchiha?
"...Ah, I see. You can't possibly be the White Fang with a sharingan in your left socket. Stealing an eye from an honorary Uchiha is a sin, Boy." The man pinned the Hatake to the trunk, his cane pressurizing Kakashi's shoulder and he cried out in agonizing pain.
"...I didn't steal...it!" Kakashi grunted out, clasping onto the cane until his fingers pierced through the wood in his grip before it splintered into millions of pieces.
The old man staggered back as he noticed the boy's Mangekyo Sharingan stirred to life in his left eye. This boy... This boy is the one. A young prodigy with the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"...You didn't steal it?" The elderly man narrowed his suspicious eyes on the boy, and sighed. "How can I believe you?"
Kakashi glared at the older man, enraged. "Why the hell should I tell you? It's none of your business, Old Man." His snarky comments made the Uchiha's soft gaze turn into a sinister glare:
"Tell me or I'll kill you." the sentence alone demonstrated a sense of great power. He needn't speak more, he knew that this boy he had just found will tell him.
The Hatake scoffed, but he knew that he had no other choice. Considering the state he was in, there was a possibility he was going to get killed by the older man. "Fine," a combination of exhaustion and a snarl formed his reply, and it only made the man's eyes crease with delight.
"Uchiha Obito, my best friend, he gave it to me," Kakashi stared at the ground, his mismatched eyes hardening, "He gave me his eye, before he was crushed by a boulder..." The thirteen-year-old prodigy clutched his wound tightly as a growl escaped his lips, "I-It was all Konoha's fault. It was Konoha's fault for giving us the damn mission."
Kakashi's voice rang with a bitter tone, his eyes cold and steely. The old man noticed it - the boy's hatred was true.
"And how did you awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan? One with no extraordinary kekkei genkai could never awaken it." The elder tilted his head slightly, waiting for the silver-haired boy's answer.
"Is that what you Uchiha call it? Mangekyou Sharingan?" Kakashi raised his head to gaze up at the older man,"How did I awaken it?" he chuckled, "Wouldn't you like to know..?" Rin. All the memories of her, jumping in front of his Chidori. Damned rules. Damned missions.
Damned reality.
The man noticed that the Hatake boy was shaking, either in rage or he was weakening because of his wound. Either way, this boy was his prize.
His prize and weapon to change reality in the future.
"Come, you aren't going to survive if you are in a state like this..." The old man murmured, placing his bony hand on Kakashi's shoulder.
The Hatake boy pushed the man's hand away, he couldn't easily trust a stranger on a whim. But at this rate he wasn't going to survive long if he had a wound inflicted in his abdomen.
"Can I trust you, Old Man?" The silver-haired Hatake tensed, eager to hear a response.
The older individual chuckled as he helped the boy up, "Of course. Why wouldn't I help a child who is on the verge of dying?"
Kakashi hesitated before allowing himself the aid of the elder. He was still wary of this conspicuous man. "What's your name?"
"My name is," twin sharingan shone back to life, subduing the young Hatake's stirring hatred, making him see that his own hatred far surpasses his.
Kakashi froze at the name. It rang with familiarity.
"Uchiha Madara."
Author's Note:
So I apologize for never getting to update this chapter. Those who have waited for this chapter, it has finally came out! Hurrah!
I want to give out thanks to E3-FantasyandReality for BETA-ing for me! I cannot put this story together without you! :D
I will work on the the next chapter, pronto! But mind my absence, because school is technically giving me stress with my other events in life.
Until then!
~TheFanficBaka