Second Sight

Chapter Four

At some point, Kakashi had gotten bored of sitting around while his two favorite people were being scholarly, and escaped outside to go chase bugs or whatever it was that slightly-unhinged demon foxes did in their spare time. This left Shimenawa and Obito to their own devices, sitting in the middle of the doctor's kitchen working on the last concluding paragraphs of the research paper -- Shimenawa had panicked a little around 10:30 when he realized he hadn't opened up his office yet, and then remembered about five minutes later that it was his scheduled day off. How was that for providence.

"So I guess that works for an ending?" he posited with a raised eyebrow, picking up the last coffee mug off the floor to wash out over at the sink. "Is it long enough, do you think?"

"Yeah. If my history professor hasn't killed herself by page six, I'll be surprised," Obito answered, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, "That shit's depressing. War sounds a lot cooler in movies and stuff." He gathered up his papers and put them back into his bag in thoughtful silence, which was rare for him. He was insanely curious now, and still just a little bit jealous what Kakashi and Shimenawa had. Whatever that was. God damnit, Obito was confused. About who he was and who Kakashi was and who the guy who had practically raised him really was. He just wanted things to make sense.

"...Shimenawa-sensei?" he asked hesitantly, dropping his backpack by the door, "I was wondering... about... you'n Kakashi..."

"What about me and Kakashi?" Shimenawa blinked, looking a little confused as he pulled a dishrag out of one of the cabinets.

"I dunno," Obito mumbled, finding himself a seat on the counter, "You guys just seem... really close. So what happened after I was gone, I guess. Or before. It's not... like I remember any of it or anything. I try to get Kakashi to tell me things but he's a little... well... he doesn't always make sense. And sometimes he just won't answer."

"...After you were gone, huh." The doctor smiled a little awkwardly, picking up a mug to start rinsing it out. "Well, um... what's he told you?"

"Nothing. That we kissed when we were thirteen. That we blew up a bridge and I died for him. That I was a sucky ninja," Obito sighed, kicking his legs a little, "...nothing."

"Oh." Shimenawa blinked, and his smile grew genuine again. "Well, he's covered everything important to him, then. Except that he loves you very much, but you'll just have to take that as implied, I'm afraid. Kakashi's always been a little shy." He swished soapy water around in his kitty mug, looking thoughtful as his gaze turned momentarily back toward the sink.

"I don't know, Shimenawa-sensei," Obito shook his head, "Maybe it'd help if I remembered, but... we were thirteen. It was wartime and it doesn't sound like we even had time to finish growing up. I'm wondering if I even got to hit puberty. How could he love me that much? I'm pretty sure he's only... the way he is because he's still guilty I died for him. Survivor's guilt can be a bitch, yeah? I just... I can't see how he could care that much for someone like me. He doesn't seem the type and we were only thirteen and... three thousand years. I just don't know."

"Hm, well."

The young doctor's smile might have been a little pained as he continued washing out the coffee mugs.

"There's a thing about Kakashi, I suppose. He's loyal to a fault... when he gets attached, he doesn't tend to let go." A faraway expression surfaced briefly on Shimenawa's face, as he thought back to that time, all those years and years ago, back when Kakashi had been just a tiny little thing... "He's been pretty lonely for most of his life, I think. He didn't really have a family, or well, he lost them very early. And he started training to be shinobi at an absurdly early age -- he's always been really smart, and he just didn't fit in with the other kids his age, so he didn't really have any friends when he was young either. Before I was your team leader, I taught him by himself for a few years." He paused to smile self-deprecatingly. "I like to think maybe I managed to fill a little of that hole for him, that lack of a family in his life. He never trusted people very much, but the very few he was able to get close to, well..."

He looked up at Obito with a sad smile, setting one of the mugs down on the counter. "He just couldn't bear to lose you, I think. He took it... very badly after you were gone. Not just because he blamed himself, but just... I don't think he could handle the idea that you weren't going to be around anymore. A very very few people made up his whole world, and losing you took a big chunk right out of it."

It hurt to say the words, because as every single one of them exited his mouth he couldn't help thinking forward to what came next in the story. A room in shambles painted with blood, and the beautiful, fragile boy he loved so much, crumpled on the floor in the middle of the chaos like a broken doll...

He should have been able to do something more. He was amazed and elated and grateful to have found Kakashi again, to get a second chance to help make it right, but... Shimenawa didn't think he would ever stop wishing that he had the whole thing to do over.

"Oh," Obito responded simply, feeling a little bit dumb. He didn't know how to react to that, still unused to being important to anyone. And the kind of dedication Kakashi had for him, even if the fox was a little (okay a lot) on the loopy side... Obito felt more than a little bit unworthy, but that was probably just years of his dad running his self esteem through the shredder. Obito acted full of himself all the time merely as compensation.

"I... I understand better now," he nodded, wringing his wrists, almost wishing Kakashi were back so he could try to... try to fix him. Try to make it better. But Obito had a feeling like he wasn't going to be able to do three thousand years of damage in his short lifetime.

"...Shimenawa-sensei," Obito began again, looking up, "You're not... trying to avoid telling me what happened after I died, are you?"

"Well, that's something I've always figured most people would prefer not to think about," the doctor said, with another uncomfortable smile. He turned back toward his chore for the moment. "How their loved ones would grieve after they died."

"Most people aren't bothered that much by their mothers crying and their friends getting hammered," Obito responded warily, looking at least as uncomfortable as Shimenawa did, "Something tells me that's not what you guys did."

"Well, there may have been some alcohol involved afterwards," Shimenawa clarified with a dignified cough. He stared down at the sink for a moment with unmoving hands, and after a long moment, he sighed.

"...this isn't something you need to discuss with Kakashi, all right?" the young doctor murmured. "You'll just upset him if you bring it up. But, he..." Shimenawa paused again, looking increasingly uncomfortable. "Living the kind of life he led, at his very young age... He was never a very stable person, and he really... was never the same after that mission, after you passed. Of course we tried to do what we could for him, but he just... seemed to keep getting worse and worse..." Absently he wrung the dishcloth in between his hands, as that horrific scene sprung into his mind again despite himself. It had taken a long time to get to a point where it hadn't felt burned into the back of his eyelids...

"He... took his own life, in the end," Shimenawa said quietly, turning to not-quite look at Obito with an awkward, pained little smile.

Obito didn't react immediately, the words not quite sinking in. It felt wrong. It bothered Obito on a very fundamental level. Shimenawa-sensei had just told him that Kakashi had killed himself over his death, and Obito could barely even manage to feel numb. He felt too distanced from it all, from the person he had been. He didn't remember like they did, didn't have great enough an imagination to fill in the blanks. It didn't quite seem real. As though all this had happened for someone else and Obito was just an unwilling spectator. The things he felt when he was with Kakashi convinced him that he and Uchiha Obito were one and the same, and yet there was almost a wall between the person he had been and the person he was now. He knew he should feel horrible, horrible for what Kakashi had done to himself, but it felt almost as though he had just listened to the report of some tragedy on the news. It made him sad, but it didn't affect him the way it should have. The way he so badly wanted it to.

"I... I have to go, Shimenawa-sensei," Obito whispered, mouth and throat feeling dry, "Thanks for all your help. I'll... I'll stop by after class. Or something. Yeah. Can you tell Kakashi where I live? No. He probably already knows. Tell him just in case. I guess. I have to go." He sounded as though he was speaking to himself as he made for the door, barely remembering to pick up his backpack on his way out.

He walked until he reached his campus, walked staring blankly ahead.

'He took his own life, in the end.'

Blood. There had been blood, hadn't there? Because Obito had bled. Had he bled? There was blood. And an eye. On the floor. It was on the floor, in the middle of the blood. There was a sword. It was a small sword. A tantou. Kakashi's tantou. There was a hand. No, there were two hands. One held the tantou loosely. The other was near the eye. It had dropped the eye. Death can do that. Make you drop things. Obito knew because he'd tried to... take the sword. Take it away. But he couldn't. There was blood. There was screaming. Or there would have been. Death takes your voice away too.

'...the important things will start to come back to you.'

Obito was hiding in the courtyard. He usually hid in the library because it was quiet and dark but not right now, no. No quiet and dark. It had been quiet and dark then too. Quiet and dark and dark and quiet and the moonlight was casting off the sword and the blood and the tears on Kakashi's face. There were tears on Obito's face too but the moonlight passed right through him. Just like Kakashi's gaze. Only then Kakashi couldn't see anything anymore because there was too much blood and it was dark and it was quiet and why couldn't he hear him?

Obito curled up against the bench and drew his knees up to his chest, pressed his face into his arms. Kakashi was so stupid. He never listened. Obito didn't want it back! Obito was waiting for him! Obito was right there! He kissed Kakashi good night and good morning and he watched him eat and sleep and shower and he watched him fall apart. Why wouldn't he stop? He was going to make Rin cry, Rin was going to... He'd promised! Why wouldn't he listen?

Obito cried into his arms in great, shuddering sobs as he tried to forget what he had wanted to remember all morning, cried until his head throbbed and his throat burned and he was so exhausted he felt he couldn't possibly cry any more but he still couldn't find a way to stop. He cried the way he had when Kakashi slumped over and dropped that stupid goddamned eye, cried the way he had when Kakashi wouldn't stop saying his name. He couldn't block it out no matter how much he covered his ears, because his hearing didn't rely on them any longer. He cried the way he had when Sensei walked in, when Sensei couldn't hear him sob out that he was so, so sorry that he'd been headstrong and stupid and let Kakashi get hurt and how he hadn't been fast enough to get away from that stupid fucking rock and that he was sorry he died and he shouldn't've tried so hard to be a hero and... and...

Obito cried through his class, cried until he hated himself enough to force himself to stop. He had wanted this to affect him and now it did. Kakashi had suffered so much for him. Obito wouldn't be able to sleep at night anymore if he didn't do... something. He remembered something his dad had told him once. (Was it really? It couldn't have been his dad. His dad never gave advice. But he was so sure it was his dad.)

'You can have anything you want in the world, as long as you're willing to give up everything else for it.'

Obito dried his eyes and forced himself to his feet. He headed for the enrollment office.

---------

A few hours later, the day now near dusk, Obito was in front of Shimenawa-sensei's office again, now a new man. He wasn't a full time student anymore, or even a student at all. He had a full time construction job he'd landed because, well, a lot of things needed to be fixed all the time in a ninja village, even one as modern as Konoha. It paid well, didn't involve a lot of thinking, and it definitely didn't involve anything resembling customer service, so it was Obito's kind of job. He'd left his dad, feeling he had paid his dues to his old man for knocking some poor teenager up by not killing him for the past eighteen years, and now had a kinda small and crappy apartment a few blocks away. It was only a few minutes away from Shimenawa-sensei and it didn't have his dad, so it was Obito's kind of place.

Oh, and Obito'd gotten a haircut too. Short and shaggy, just like in the picture in his history book. And somewhere between dropping out of school and getting an apartment he'd picked up some red fabric and some white fabric. He planned on asking Shimenawa-sensei to help him 'convert' all of his clothing. And maybe convince the doctor to redecorate. Because his clan ruled too much to become a forgotten page in history.

"Shimenawa-sensei!" he all but sang, feeling a bit elated because, hey, everything was unicorns and rainbows compared to what he'd gone through a couple hours ago, "I'm back!"

It was nice to hear Obito sounding cheerful, but... considering the mood he'd left in earlier, somehow Shimenawa had a bad feeling about that note in the boy's voice. "Welcome back," the man greeted his young friend with careful cheerfulness as he rounded the corner to see Obito walking into the foyer. "How was class?" He paused for a moment after he'd spoken, looking at Obito with a slightly confused expression.

"Did you get your hair cut?"

In Shimenawa's living room, there was a silver fox sprawled over about half the length of the couch cushions, fast asleep.

"Didn't go," Obito shrugged casually, "But it's okay because I don't have to go to any of my classes anymore. I went shopping instead! Did you know they still make Uchiha fans? I was pretty sure my clan was the only one who put out this stuff, but man some of the stuff the museum gift shop carries! Though the color is kinda off. It's a brighter red, and it was totally round. This is kind of a funny shape but it'll do." He pulled said fan out of his backpack which was now serving him as a shopping bag and fanned himself with it. Then he blinked at Shimenawa.

"Is something wrong, Sensei? And when did Kakashi get back? Did something happen? Why's he sleeping? We slept together last night so... well, I'm not tired."

Shimenawa was still staring, a horrible sinking feeling tugging at his chest. He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly feeling very, very frazzled. "I don't know, I think maybe he just likes the couch... Obito, are you..." He stopped himself from finishing that sentence with are you all right. "You--" and very suddenly it clicked in his mind and was crystal-clear--

"What did you remember...?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing really. I guess. I can't really tell apart my lives too well. I mean, I have this saying my dad used to tell me I swear it was my dad but I can't tell which dad. Some things are easier, I guess. I can't really mix up K-12 education here with the Academy," he smiled, rummaging through his bag once more, "Oh, and everything that I did after I died. Or didn't do. That stuff's all pretty clear. Hey, can I have a sucker? I haven't eaten all day and I think I'm going to pass out soon."

...Oh, god, I'm going to lose another one.

Shimenawa leaned on the nearest wall until the sudden lightheadedness passed, and then he took a very deep breath and took Obito by the elbow.

"Obito, why don't you sit down," he murmured, leading the boy over to the part of the couch Kakashi wasn't lying on. He pressed him down gently into a seat without waiting for Obito's approval. "I'll go make you something to eat, okay...?" He paused to rummage around in his pants pocket, and produced a couple hard candies -- they weren't suckers, but hopefully they would do. He deposited them in Obito's lap and reached down to ruffle his newly-trimmed hair, and he gave the boy a quick, impulsive hug before starting toward the kitchen. "I'll be back in a little bit. Just call for me if you need me."

Once he got into the kitchen, he had to stop to lean against the wall and take another few deep breaths, and when he felt like he wasn't going to pass out he went looking for fixings for grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Thanks, Sensei! You're the best!" Obito beamed after Shimenawa, popping the candies into his mouth. (He did remember to unwrap them first, but only barely.) He looked around for a minute before deciding he was bored and scooped Kakashi up like a pet cat, setting the fox down again on his lap, stroking him with a hand that only shook when his concentration wandered.

"I don't care how much Sensei thinks you like the couch," he told the possibly still unconscious fox, "my lap is better. And what are you doing with the fox thing anyway? You make a better boy. And if you don't wake up you won't be able to see my new haircut. And why is it I never have good eyes? Maybe they're just too gorgeous. They're all big and pretty so stuff gets in them all the time. I suffer for my beauty. Hey, do you know where Sensei put the extra candy? I'm feeling a watermelon Jolly Rancher right about now."

Kakashi was awake. All it had really taken was being touched; but he smelled Obito's scent around him and heard Obito's voice, and knew there was no need to overreact. He didn't change back right away, though. He might have made a better boy, and he didn't mind being a boy usually, but he liked being a fox. It was nice to be warm and curl up on Obito's soft lap and feel Obito's hands stroke his fur and listen to Obito's voice talk about this and that, just because he could. He gave a little fox sigh, and licked Obito's hand gratefully before obligingly changing back. He was now taking up half the couch again, tail swishing semi-contentedly against the hem of his yukata as his head rested in Obito's lap.

"It's in Sensei's closet and I like your eyes and your hair and your lap, they're nice," he murmured, looking up at the other boy with some concern. "...Are you sad?" Obito's scent was weird, and Kakashi wasn't sure he'd smelled anything like it on the other boy before.

"Sad? No," Obito answered as he wandered away to find himself a watermelon Jolly Rancher. "Well. Maybe. I guess. A little? No, not really. Maybe," he mumbled to himself as he rummaged through the closet before triumphantly returning with his prize. He unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth as well before plopping back down on the couch, patting his lap for Kakashi to come back.

"I'm just... glad you're here," he decided as he wound his arms around the kitsune, smiling to himself, "You're here and I can hold you and touch you and feel you and keep you safe because you're really bad at that. That's good enough for me. And for the record, I'm not a sucky ninja and my clan was lucky to have me."

It was such absolute bliss, being able to touch Obito whenever he wanted, being folded up into Obito's arms as if it were nothing at all, that for a moment it just felt too good for talking. Kakashi hadn't done much feeling good in the last few thousand years, so he was absorbing every little bit greedily; and the events of the last couple days had totally drained his emotional reserves. His head still felt a little fuzzy -- which was to say, moreso than usual -- and at the moment, it was hard to make himself focus on much of anything besides how niceweirdnice it all was.

Something still seemed different about Obito, though.

"I can keep me safe," he pouted a little, winding his own arms around Obito's back and laying his head on the other boy's shoulder and generally attaching hmself. His tail swished against the couch fabric. "...You made neat paper shuriken," he offered after a moment, thinking back to some vague time that came randomly floating into his memory. "They stuck in the wood, too."

"Can not. Best we can expect out of you is for you not to find a way to get yourself killed," Obito countered, sitting back against the couch to better snuggle Kakashi, "And oh hey! I still do that! Only they don't make paper like they used to, man. That flimsy printer shit? Couldn't stick in... uh, something really soft. Like pudding. Yeah. Wouldn't even stick in pudding. Maybe I should go help Sensei in the kitchen. That'd be polite, wouldn't it? But he told me to sit here. He really wanted me to sit down. Is he acting strange to you? Hey, do you know how to sew?" Obito was definitely trying to avoid thinking about something, probably the mental image of Kakashi brutally butchered and slowly bleeding to death, mind darting from one whimsical thought to another in a desperate attempt to protect itself. Candy was good, wasn't it? Yeah, candy was good.

"Um, I can do field stitches." Kakashi blinked, having a hard time hanging onto Obito's train of thought. "They kinda suck though. Gave myself a weird scar once. Rin's scaryface is mad. ... um. Mad face is scary."

He cocked his head a little as he looked up the few inches toward Obito's face, a hand untwining from the boy's torso to stretch upward. "Your hair's different," Kakashi noted with mild surprise, reaching out to pet it reverently. It was soft.

"No," Obito corrected, "It's the same way it's always been. I'm not cool like you and Sensei. If my hair gets in my eyes during a mission, I just die. My eyes start watering and then I can't see but thankfully Dad figured it out before I was even in the Academy. Your hair's different. Going for the dark and tormented look? No, don't answer that. I wonder what Sensei's doing." He carefully avoided talking about Rin. If he talked about her there was a chance he might start thinking about that expression she wore to Kakashi's wake. That expression that wasn't one. That blank look of someone who'd finally lost everything. She had never looked that way before. When Obito'd died, she'd used her pretty sad face and cried for him. That was nice. For Kakashi, she'd just looked empty. And lost. Like the only want she had left in the world was see her sensei to the end.

Which she did.

Obito squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make the thoughts go away.

"I wonder what Sensei is making," he continued abruptly, "Can you smell it, Kakashi? Tell me what it is, yeah? You always had the best sense of smell. Got creepy at times."

"Chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches," the kitsune murmured absently without missing a beat. He was still frowning at Obito's hair, now looking rather confused and unsure of himself. "It is different... it was different yesterday and... before that and before that and... before that too and..." He frowned, looking a little defeated as he glanced downward. "It was, wasn't... was?"

And... wait. The Academy. Something was pricking his mind about that, that he couldn't quite place. What was... Wait... this was now-Obito, he'd never been to the Academy... ...right? Was there actually an Academy hiding here and Kakashi'd never seen it? There was, wasn't there? No there wasn't. Well maybe there was and maybe there dammit he didn't know, did little kids study ancient four thousand years ago Konoha before there was a Konoha at the Academy well no they couldn't have because there wasn't an Academy eight thousand years ago and there, wait, what was he thinking.

"Maybe they're hiding it from me," he mumbled to himself, curling back up around Obito with a furrowed brow.

"Maybe. But this is my hair. So whatever, yeah? Oh, Sensei knows exactly what I like. But of course he would. He practically raised me," Obito paused thoughtfully, "Well, I guess it's fair. You got him last time. Wait, who's hiding what from you? Don't worry, Kakashi. We can go to City Hall tomorrow and look through the lost-and-found for your sanity. Maybe mine's there too."

Kakashi blinked, frowning again and looking a little forlorn. Getting things mixed up always made him feel sad, like he was letting somebody down. Like he knew he should be able to do better but he couldn't quite manage it. He didn't like that feeling at all.

"...now-Academy? For now-Obito. Thought there wasn't one now," he mumbled. "When did you go? I watched you but I didn't see it. Must have been hiding. It probably doesn't like me," he added as the thought floated into his head -- that explained it, really. He'd only stayed in the Academy for a year or two, after all, and he'd been very snobby and awful about it.

"I went the same time you went, stupid," Obito rolled his eyes, "And the school can't not like you. It's a school. Sure, the people in the school might've hated your guts, but they couldn't hide the whole school from you. Well, actually, maybe they could... with some really impressive genjutsu or something. Back then. Now, though, you've got my awesome Sharingan so you'd probably see right through the genjutsu unless the school went out of their way to use a super genjutsu. Which would either mean they have too much time and resources or they really hate you."

"The..."

Kakashi frowned at the floor and felt very stupid. He unwound himself from around Obito and crawled off the other boy's lap with a rather chastised expression, tail drooping onto the couch cushions.

"Okay, food!" came Shimenawa's voice from the kitchen, as if on cue. He walked back in with a big tray of soup-in-a-mug and sandwiches for three, wearing something close to his usual smile; the brief time-out had been a blessing for his composure. "Here we go," he said as he set down the tray on the coffee table in front of the couch, taking up a perch on the floor on the other side and looking between the pair of boys expectantly (and perhaps a little apprehensively, as well).

"Where're you going, Kakashi?" Obito blinked, then was immediately distracted by Shimenawa returning with the food. "Oh hey, Sensei! Awesome! It looks great! Your cooking's always been better than my mom's! ...but don't tell her that. She'll get mad. Uh, well, not that you can." Obito smiled sheepishly and cuddled his tray of food, guessing it was just as well that Kakashi had gotten out of his lap because otherwise there wouldn't have been anywhere for his food.

"Obito..." Shimenawa paused in the middle of picking up a sandwich half, looking up at the young man with concern. "You, um... You're right, I can't, because I don't know your mom, and neither do you..." Oh, god, he did not want to be having this conversation. He shouldn't have said a damn thing, no matter how much Obito prodded him. How was he ever going to fix this mess...?

Kakashi glanced up at that, looking over at Obito with his dejected face fading into a worried one, but went back to staring at the carpet before long.

"What are you talking about, Sensei? You met my mom at my wake. She was the lady with the really bad taste in clothes. Like the black looked okay on her but normally? You know what she wore to my graduation party? An orange, pink, and purple kimono. Who does that? Kakashi asked me once if her taste in clothes rubbed off on me, and I told him my clothes don't look half as bad as that. In fact, they look sweet. At least orange and blue go together," Obito blinked, not quite understanding what Shimenawa was getting at and then--

"Oh. You mean the chick who got knocked up by my drunk old man and left me at the hospital after I was born? You know I don't call her my mom, Sensei. Is something wrong? You feeling okay?"

Well, at least he hadn't actually blocked out the details of his real life. Shimenawa was able to breathe a little again. He shook his head, brow furrowing as he looked Obito in the face again. At his wake...?

"Well, I'm more than a little worried about you," the doctor confessed, frowning. "And... what was that about not having to go to class earlier...?"

He paused for a second, and then shook his head. "Actually, no, just... let's just get some food in you first. We can talk after we've eaten. Kakashi?" His voice softened a little as he gently tried to catch the kitsune's attention. "Don't you want anything?"

Kakashi gave a faint start upon registering his name, looking up at his sensei with mild surprise. "...Um." He blinked down at the food for a moment before absently picking up a sandwich.

"Why are you worried about me? I'm fine!" Obito insisted, smiling brightly as he shoved his face full of sandwich.

"Oh an' I d'opped outta scoo'," he added cheerfully as an afterthought while chewing.

Shimenawa's jaw threatened not only to drop open, but to fall off his face entirely, so he stopped and took another very deep breath and resisted the urge to reach across the table and smack the boy upside the head.

"...Obito. This morning you were panicking over having a paper due and worked with me all morning to finish it." He spoke in his best reasonable I'm A Doctor voice, in hopes it would actually penetrate whatever was going on in Obito's head right now, and also because it helped him keep his own desires to Do Something Very Stupid in check. "This evening you're telling me that you suddenly dropped out of school. That should be evidence enough that something is not fine."

He stopped for a moment to breathe again. "Anyway. Food first. Kakashi, it's not going to fill your tummy if you just stare at it."

Uh-oh. Shimenawa-sensei was using his 'I'm A Doctor' voice. It was similar to a mother calling out her child's full name. Or a father reaching for his belt. It translated to 'boy, you're in some serious shit'. Obito swallowed and then took Shimenawa's advice, wolfing down his food while he still had the chance.

"I'll do dishes!" he volunteered, picking up his tray so he could retreat to the kitchen, "Just bring me yours when you're done! Kakashi, you can bring me Sensei's dishes, right? After all, he worked so hard to cook us this delicious meal! Yeah, you just rest here, Shimenawa-sensei!"

If Obito had run out of that cave as fast as he booked it into the kitchen, he probably would have survived.

...okay, admittedly it made Shimenawa feel a little better to see Obito reacting in a perfectly normal way to his totally awesome sensei's display of righteous anger. Or, well, relatively calm disappointment and confusion. It would have felt nice to shake the kid and beg to know what the hell had gotten into him and order him to snap out of it, but the fact was Shimenawa knew exactly what had gotten into him, and violence occasionally helped you solve the problem of a bunch of guys jumping you wielding sharp pointy kunai but never solved much at all in the way of interpersonal communication, as Obito's dad this time around had proven nicely.

"What am I going to do with you two," he murmured, reaching up to rub at his temples as he watched Kakashi pull the crusts off his sandwich half. It seemed none had yet managed to actually find its way into the kitsune's mouth.

"...Kakashi." His voice was a little testy as he frowned. "You look like you haven't had any actual food for the last millennium or so. Eat your sandwich."

Kakashi looked up at him a little guiltily, and started chewing on one of the crusts. Shimenawa sipped his soup in silence for a while.