Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.
I have no excuse. I am a horrible human being and humbly apologise but... if I did have an excuse. IT'S ALL FUGAKU'S FAULT!
The sun is setting and Obito wonders how this dream will end.
Will the world fall to pieces like in the genjutsu? Will Rin appear only to die again, taking his heart with her? Will he wake up slow and sluggish, reluctant to leave his spot? Or will he startle, bolting out in fea-
Obito falls to his knees clutching his chest.
Tears well up in the corner of his eye and his jaw clenches. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. IT HURTS. It feels like someone his tearing his chest apart. Ripping his heart out and all he feels is pain.
Flowers around him shrivel and crumble to dust setting off a wave of death that moves outwards and leaves the field a bare patch of ground. The sky darkens with grey clouds and rain pours from the sky creating the mud that clings to his clothes as the wind howls around him, whipping wet locks of hair into his face.
Obito takes no notice. They only thing he can hear is screaming and it takes a while for him to realise that they're his screams. He's screaming. He's screaming and screaming and screaming. Because it hurts so so much and he just wants it to stop. Make it stop. Please please make it stop.
MAKE IT STOP!
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows that he can't stop. That he has to keep going. But he doesn't know why. Why does he want this? Why does he have to keep going? What is so important?
Who is so important?
Obito doesn't know.
All he knows is pain and fear and agony and ithurtsithurtssosomuchpleasemakeitstopplease.
The pain intensifies and all he can see is white. He manages one coherent thought before he passes out:
"I still had twelve more chains to weave."
Obito's eye snaps open.
He feels like shit. His body aches in a way it hasn't ached since the first time he woke with transplants. His head is pounding but his chest doesn't feel like it's being torn open with a rusty fork and set on fire anymore. Right now it's a dull ache. Painful but he can think beyond the pain.
He gathers his wits and realises he's in a hospital room. Alone. It's silent with the exception of the beeping of machines and he wonders absently whether it's customary for patients who've just undertaken risky surgery to be left unattended.
Probably not.
Counting the tiles on the ceiling, Obito tries to squash the discomfort he feels. Obito doesn't think he's a superstitious person, outside of ghosts. Ghosts are real no matter what anyone says. (That is in no way directed to a certain Mental-Bakashi.)
Idiot.
They are real! I swear when I die, you know for real, I'll haunt you for the rest of your life and then you'll know.
(Obito also isn't pouting.)
Either way, Obito is not superstitious. He breaks mirrors without a care in the world, you know, outside of repair costs and scoldings. He avoids black cats only because cats in general are evil. He skips under ladders merrily and is entirely at ease with possible misfortunate consequences. But something in him can't help but feel like the dream was a bad omen.
Nine hundred and eighty eight. He had only managed nine hundred and eighty eight.
Before he registers what he's doing Obito flings himself out of the window landing clumsily on a tree branch. His chest protests at the action and he kindly asks it to shut up. Obito is going to make twelve more flower chains and forever immortalize Team Seven's - or is it Team Minato now? Hmm… he's always been partial to the number seven, let's keep it at seven - friendship for the generations to come...
With flowers. That will probably wither within a week maximum.
Shut up Bakashi. His logic is flawless. Possibly influenced by the drugs he's on, but flawless.
Almost falling off the tree, Obito ambles his way to the nearest (and not owned by anyone else - Obito isn't that high yet) patch of flowers he can find. The sky is dark, not night dark, but the kind of dark that's just before the sun rises which explains why the place seems empty.
Obito takes no notice of the eerie ambience an empty Konoha holds. After the creepy forest, it barely registers on his danger meter. Unfortunately, his new resistance to intent combined with the drugs he's on ensures that the shinobi behind him doesn't register either.
"O-Obito-kun?"
Obito freezes.
He knows that voice. It's tinged with shock and disbelief and even though the stutter short-circuited Obito's mental faculties at first (Holy crap, he can stutter?), he can still recognise it from a block away.
Spinning around, Obito's only eye looks up to meet the Sharingan and in that instant, he wills himself to spontaneously combust.
Sitting in seiza, Obito calmly sips at the tea - the picture of sophistication and poise. On the inside, Obito is spasming and twitching, working himself into a frenzy. This was a bad bad idea. Why did he leave the hospital? In fact, why did he bother waking up? He is in no way ready to deal with this.
Life has decided to take Asshole 101 lessons taught by the esteemed asshole himself, Bakashi and as a consequence, Obito is currently being stared down by his Clan Head.
Cursing the universe, Minato-sensei, Bakashi, a stray black cat they had passed by on the way to the Uchiha compound and basically anything possibly related to the reason he's in this position, Obito stares back readily.
He forces himself not to flinch or back away. His back is perfectly straight and he sips his tea in a way, he prays to Kami, that looks refined and elegant as befitting an Uchiha and not like the nervous wreck he actually is. Afterall, he has to be perfect. Fugaku-sama is a shark, one sign of weakness and you're dead.
After a long silence, Fugaku-sama turns back to his tea and Obito barely manages to suppress a sigh of relief. The Uchiha clan have this weird thing where they measure an opponent's worth based on their gaze. But then again, they are a clan with a dojutsu kekkai genkai.
"Obito-kun."
"Yes, Fugaku-sama?"
"I was under the impression that you were buried under ten tonnes of rock somewhere in Kusagakure."
"I was."
"And yet, you're here. Not buried under rocks."
"Yes, Fugaku-sama."
It's tense once again and Obito waits for Fugaku-sama to say something, anything. After another handful of minutes, it becomes clear that he won't. So Obito decides to take it upon his own hands.
"Would you like to hear why I'm not buried under rocks?" Obito kicks himself. Seriously? Seriously? What type of ice-breaker is that?
"Hn."
Taking that as a yes, Obito launches into his tale omitting out parts as he deems necessary and keeping his eyes on the decor. Can't Fugaku-sama just... focus of the tea he's sipping and stop looking at Obito? It's not like he's got rice on his face. Right? Obito panics conveniently forgetting that the last time he ate rice was before Kannabi yet somehow, through all his fear and jittery nerves manages to finish the story.
Fugaku-sama's only response is a disyllabic "I see."
It's silent again and Obito's fingers twitch. I see? I see? What does he mean by 'I see'? What does he see? Because Obito is in the same room and he isn't seeing anything.
Fugaku-sama isn't reacting. His face is something chiseled out of stone and Obito can't get a read. It's unnerving and Obito's split between freaking out over Fugaku-sama's non-reaction and freaking over his own most likely atrocious tea-sipping skills.
For all the traditional etiquette and training he's had for this type of situation - outcast or not, he is still an Uchiha - he's never actually had to put it to use.
Sure, Obito knows his Clan Head - everyone does. But he doesn't actually know his Clan Head. It's not that Fugaku-sama is some distant figurehead standing on top of a pedestal. For all their haughty superiority, the Uchiha Clan is actually quite a tight-knit family so drinking tea with the Clan Head isn't all that strange - it's actually quite a normal occurrence.
Obito knows his clan loves and loves deeply. Fugaku-sama is no exception. Before the war, it was not unusual to see the not-yet Clan Head visiting the families of the deceased, bringing gifts and making sure they were maybe not okay, but that they were dealing. Checking up on the Uchiha orphans and telling them stories (ie. lectures on their duties as Uchiha) but nevertheless it was clear that he cared about each and every one of his clanspeople.
Except Obito.
The nice couple down the street has never given Obito free dango on special occasions like all the other children. Whenever Fugaku-sama visited, it was always for baa-chan. Obito has always ignored with the exception of disdainful looks and cutting reprimands. The only time people other than baa-chan (and later Rin) have ever looked at Obito was when he was helping them.
Obito is a dead-last, a disappointment. Something, his clan has always told him - though, maybe not explicitly - that would be all he'd amount to.
Meaning this is really out of comfort zone.
Obito doesn't drink tea with the Clan Head.
And yet, here he is. Drinking tea with the Clan Head.
As the seconds pass Obito gets angstier and angstier. However before Obito can rage-Kamui back to the hospital, Fugaku-sama decides to speak and consequently flip Obito's worldview upside down.
"I am sorry."
Obito stills. Did Fugaku-sama just - No, he couldn't have, there was no way - But...
Obito refuses to believe his ears. He must have gone temporarily deaf. Because if he hasn't then...
Then Fugaku-sama just apologised.
A hand moves to clasp his shoulder and Obito cannot fight the instinctive flinch. Fugaku-sama aborts the motion before Obito realises how that flinch could be interpreted - how it was interpreted.
Quickly, he tries to do damage control but his voice is caught in his throat. So instead, he tries to stare Fugaku-sama into comprehension.
He wasn't - Obito begs Fugaku-sama to understand - He wasn't ready. It's just been so long and he can't remember a time where it didn't - didn't hurt. The nurses and iryo-nin never touch him without a thorough explanation ("We need to use a probe to get a finer reading on your chakra levels before we can operate, Uchiha-san") and with Minato-sensei, Obito has always been the one who initiated.
He just wasn't ready.
Fugaku-sama gives no indication whether or not he understood but from the way Fugaku-sama's eyes harden, Obito can safely bet on the latter. There's a sinking feeling in his chest and Obito hates himself because for a moment, he had the Clan Head's concern - for a moment, he was not Uchiha Obito, the clan pariah - for a moment, he was Uchiha Obito, an Uchiha - and now? Now, he isn't.
"Why was the clan not informed of this development?"
The dispassionate tone causes Obito's heart to sink further in his chest.
"I-I'm not sure," Obito cringes - wrong answer - and tries to salvage it. "The iryo-nin said that they did not to wish to cause me undue stress after my ordeal."
Fugaku-sama's eyes are like flint and Obito knows that all his efforts to contain this have been in vain. Regardless of Obito's condition, someone must have been informed. Because of Obito's condition someone should have been informed.
And true to form, Fugaku-sama's next question is "Who did they inform?"
Closing his eye, Obito submits to himself to the inevitable.
"Minato-sensei."
CRACK!
The table breaks and Obito has to force himself not to recoil.
"How dare they?" There's something dangerous in Fugaku-sama's voice. "How dare they?"
Like a forest fire gone out of control, an Uchiha's ire is something that can't be stopped or repressed or contained until it is permanently put out and Obito fears for what that could mean for his Clan Head.
Like some karmic retribution he did not know what he did to deserve, an ANBU appears from the shadows.
"Uchiha Obito, you are to return to the hospital so that the iryo-nin can verify the success of your operation and monitor your status."
The most logical explanation is that he must have been a baby-killing cannibal who molested little girls in his previous life because otherwise? Obito has no idea what he has done to deserve this.
Intent fills the room; dark and oppressive and a deceivingly calm voice asks "Operation?"
Internally, Obito wails. Why world? All he wanted to do was braid flowers. Was that really too much to ask?
There's a dark aura in the ward and Obito can count the number of nurses who have attempted to approach his Clan Head in attempts to futilely abate the man's anger on both hands. Out of the eight, Obito has to commend the dark-haired one - he had managed to walk all the way to Fugaku-sama before fleeing at the Uchiha's glare.
It is an accomplishment worthy of notice.
They are currently waiting for the iryo-nin in charge of Obito and he hopes that whoever the iryo-nin is, for their own sake, they hurry. Fugaku-sama is not a patient man.
Fortunately, they don't have to wait long. Five minutes later, a burly iryo-nin enters the room carrying a clipboard with one certain sheepish sensei trailing behind her and prompts them to relocate to an empty hospital room. Bowing to the surly Clan Head with a curt "Uchiha-sama," the muscled woman raises a brow at Obito.
"Usually when people wake up from a major surgery their first reaction normally is not to throw themselves out the window."
"You threw yourself out the window?"
Flushing red, Obito gives a weak grimace. "Ah."
"Why would yo-"
"Namikaze-san," Obito isn't sure whether to be thankful or concerned for the interruption. "What gave you the right to consent to a major operation on one of my clansmen without informing me?"
Concerned. He should be concerned.
"Fugaku," the informal address makes Obito flinch. "What do you mean?"
The fact that Minato-sensei is actually a civilian-born shinobi is often something that is easily forgotten by most shinobi. He's talented and gifted in a way that screams shinobi and his perspective on life just fits. But there are times where his civilian background stands out like the red lanterns of the Red-light District.
This is one of those times.
Quickly, Obito intervenes. "Fugaku-sama, whilst a talented shinobi, Minato-sensei is still a civilian-born." Obito carefully ignores Minato-sensei. The man's a shinobi, he'll get over any hurt feelings. What matters right now, is Fugaku-sama not going off to the Elders ranting his rage and anger at the injustice and prejudice shown to the Uchiha.
If Obito can manage that, he's marching up to the Hokage office and demanding for an unofficial diplomacy award, certificate, trophy or just something.
"He is not aware of the clan protocols like you and I are and I'm certain that with the war going on, Hokage-sama has been occupied with more pressing matters than a wayward shinobi. Minato-sensei meant no disrespect."
Obito is pretty sure that won't be enough to appease his surly Clan Head but luckily, Minato-sensei catches on that somewhere along the line he's misstepped.
"Fugaku-sama..."
Words flow from his sensei's silver tongue and reluctantly, Obito is impressed. That is some smooth bullshitting. It seems that while his sensei may be politically incompetent, it is only due to the lack of experience and knowledge not skill. One day, sensei will make for a great Hokage.
The sound of someone clearing their throat draws the trio's attention.
"Seeing as this …discussion has been brought to an understanding can we now focus on my patient?"
"Ah, yes. Of course, Mori-sensei."
"Good," she says wryly, "Uchiha-san should be allowed to leave within the next week if everything checks out."
Something in his chest lightens at the news and Obito smiles.
Seven days.
It's still a tad too long for Obito's liking but it's already a seventy-five percent cut down on Yamanaka-sama's predicted time frame. If this is what girls feel when there's a sale on, he can sort of understand why he gets trampled by civilians every time there's one on.
(Maybe… If he empathises really really hard... Okay, he can't… Civilian girls are weird...)
Either way, things are starting to look up. It's even possible that his train-wreck of a day may actually be salvaged.
So, of course, the universe then decides to drop an explosive tag.
"However, the seal is still unstable so he'll need to visit the hospital weekly to ensure there are no unsavoury side-effects. "
Obito's blood runs cold.
W-What? Seal? What seal? Why is there still a seal? Didn't Obito just undergo an operation that was supposed to get rid of it? Obito explicitly remembers that the entire point of the operation was to remove the seal.
He must have said that out loud because Mori-sensei is looking grimly at him. "You have to understand Uchiha-san, the heart is a very delicate area and not only that, an internal organ, meaning that we could not use a seal expander to properly analyse the seal and its effects. Namikaze-san may be a genius but there's only so much he can do if he cannot see the seal he's countering. The proposed operation was deemed too risky so instead it was sealed away."
Mori-sensei glances at Fugaku-sama, "The Uchiha Clan would have been informed however we were and are currently short-staffed and before we could spare a messenger we encountered an unexpected complication and had to take immediate action. It isn't an excuse, Uchiha-sama, but we are still recovering from the war effort."
There's something like grudging maybe-not-acceptance-but-something-very-close in Fugaku-sama's eyes before Mori-sensei turns to Obito.
"Obito-kun." Obito tenses.
"Yes, we were unable to remove the seal but be assured, you are no longer a security threat." It comes out like a statement - a fact. Mori-sensei says it the way one would say that the sky is blue or that fire is hot and Obito can't help but want to believe her.
But…
It's too good to be true.
Obito has been stuck in a hell for ages - long enough for days and nights to blur together into nothing - tortured for what felt like hours on end with visions of blood and betrayal and death. Visions of pain and despair and hope and happiness and perfection.
And that type of experience, it changes people.
He's still Obito. Still the little boy who thinks with his heart rather than his head. The boy who loves sweets and his Baa-chan and a girl he can't bear to think about. And with a certainty that surprises himself, Obito knows that if he saw a baa-san or jii-san struggling with a heavy load he would not hesitate to stop and help - to hell with punctuality. He knows that even if cats are demons summoned straight from the pits of hell he would not pause - would not hesitate - to help one down a tree.
At his core, he's still the same - he's still Obito.
And yet… something in him has changed. He's different now. Jaded. Scarred.
(Obito very deliberately does not touch his face.)
When he thinks of his dreams. Of being Hokage, actually being Hokage with the hat and the robes and everything. Something twists in him. When he thinks of Rin. (The corpse isn't a corpse. It's Rin. You killed Rin. YOU KILLED RIN!) Of taking her out on dates and handing her flowers and holding her hand, that thing inside him squeezes tighter leaving him gasping for air.
He's scared.
Terrified.
The thought of being happy - no, not happy; he can deal with happiness. The thought of all his dreams and hopes coming into fruition - of good things happening to him - it shakes him at his core leaving him breaking out in cold sweat.
(Deep in his subconscious, he acknowledges that there's something rather unhealthy about his newest phobia.)
Miracles don't exist. (At least, not outside of creepy caves they don't.) What good things that happen to you, have to be made to happen by you.
The little boy who believed the best in everything and everyone doesn't exist anymore. Perfect worlds don't exist and seals don't just stop working. (Well, the ones being powered by a Gate don't.)
So Obito can't trust this. Obito doesn't trust this.
He thinks that Mori-sensei gets it because at that moment she speaks up, "Yes, the seal is still active however with the countermeasures in we have place you will not longer be a security threat." Her voice holds a steel-like quality that leaves no room for doubt.
"Your seal is designed to be linked to a master seal - a control seal if you will. Any and all effects of the seal can be controlled by the person who holds the master seal. So while we were unable to remove the seal, we were able to move the link between the two seals. So the operation was revised to change the master seal to another seal which the Hokage is now holding onto. Once you've recovered and have been cleared for leave, you'll be brought to the T&I to go over the seal's functions and link between the new master seal and the person who will be in possession of the seal will be decided."
Obito tunes out as Mori-sensei goes on to outline the tests that will be conducted monitor his well-being and leaves the room for the required equipment.
He… isn't very sure how to feel.
On one hand, Obito has gotten everything he wanted. He's free from that phantom psycho's control, will not be stalked around by ANBU for the rest of his life for possibly selling out secrets and endangering his comrades and will be cleared for active duty when he recovers.
But, on the other hand, he's chained now. Shackled.
Whoever holds that seal is essentially his master and keeper. Yes, they don't know how the seal functions yet but Obito can make an educated guess. The possibility of a loyal shinobi - one with his abilities (not that they know of those) who is literally unable to betray or refuse Konoha.
It's not really something that the Council can disregard, is it?
As much as Konoha likes to preach morals and integrity and all those fluffy rainbow civilian ideals, Konoha is still a village - a shinobi village - and for all that Obito wants to believe in Konoha.
He's not a naive little boy anymore - he can't afford to be.
Glancing up, Obito takes in his companions' reactions. There's an oppressive aura hanging around Fugaku-sama that isn't exactly negative, just tense - like that feeling you get just before the jack-in-the-box jumps out of the box. In contrast, Minato-sensei seems almost relaxed. Calm. Even confident.
A light bulb flashes above Obito's head.
Oh.
Minato-sensei believes in this seal.
Relaxing, the tension in his body dissipates. Obito trusts his sensei. If Minato-sensei believes in this method then Obito will too.
Sighing quietly, Obito closes his eye as they await Mori-sensei's return. Hopefully, the day will end quickly so he can go back to the bed he should have never left in the first place.
Just as that thought is mentally given form, obnoxious rays of light shine through the recently opened windows burning his retina and a painfully cheerful voice cries out.
"Oh wow, look at the sunrise!"
If there actually is an Asshole 101 with a Lesson #1 Ruining Obito's Life, Obito will not be surprised at all.
Counting the tiles on the ceiling, Obito ponders quietly to himself
This is the first time he's been left alone since he's arrived. Well, not really. He's been alone before, but during all those times his thoughts and troubles bothered him in their place.
So a revision: This is the first time he has been able to sit down and just think - without worry or fear or just having to keep his guard up. Just to ruminate.
How is the war effort? Are we losing? Winning? What's happening? How long have I been gone?
How is Kakashi? Is he alright? Is he safe? Who are his teammates? Can they be trusted? Would they die for him too?
What about Rin? Her funeral? She loved tulips. Did you bring them to her?
What did you bring to mine?
Obito freezes.
Mine. His funeral - he had a funeral - a ceremony for a dead person.
Shakingly, Obito laughs. T-there's no way, right? They wouldn't think I was dead, right? I mean, they couldn't have.
There's a solemn tinge to Bakashi's voice. Half your body was crushed under ten tonnes of rock in the middle of enemy grounds. Nobody in your squad had the skillset to dig you out and even if they could have you would have died before anyone with the abilities to save you was reached.
Horror seeps from every pore of his body. T-they thought I was dead, didn't they? I let them think I was dead. His voice is nothing but a whisper. But on the inside, he's screaming.
Baa-chan. His poor, sweet, lonely Baa-chan. What has he done? He was the last one left of their family. The last reminder of her beloved son. Who helped her with the groceries? Who helped her up and down the stairs? There had to be someone, right? The desperation in his thoughts is almost tangible.
And Kushina-nee. It's all fuzzy but didn't he promise to come back? Obito cannot bear to think of her thoughts when three instead of four returned that day. Who helped her prank those stick-in-the-mud jerks while he was gone? Who bickered with her over ramen?
A stab of deep-seated revulsion pierces his gut.
Rin. He let Rin think he was dead before her death, didn't he? Images bloom in his mind faster than he can banish them. He's known Rin since forever and he knows her. She would have blamed herself. Oh, she would have never told anyone - would have continued smiling and laughing and acting as if everything was okay - but on the inside, she would have hated herself. To think he let her die blaming herself.
Obito is a monster.
His thoughts fall to his last teammate and he despairs.
Kakashi. He's never been good with deciphering micro-expressions and his stoic teammate's mask has always been a nuisance, so he can't really guess what Kakashi would do or feel. But… he doesn't need to guess.
For all his attitude, Kakashi cares - Obito knows he does.
Even if he didn't. To lose a teammate on a mission where you were the commanding officer would be disheartening in the very least. To lose one on your first mission as a jounin. If it was Obito, he'd be devastated.
Did I do enough? What did I do wrong? If I said this, did that, saw that would he have lived?
Genius or not - there are some blows you just can't block.
Then to be forced to kill your remaining teammate.
Obito remembers his dream. Sees her bloodied corpse strewn on the floor. Can feel that painful mix of shock and horror and self-loathing even now. ...But he also remembers the relief. The cold air kissing his cheeks as he stares a pale moon - no broken body in sight. It was a dream, just a horrible horrible dream.
When Obito woke up, he woke up to a quiet forest. When Kakashi woke up, he woke up to a graveyard.
Unlike most Uchiha, Obito actually has an imagination.
He can see Kakashi waking up. Kakashi's mind would be fuzzy and his body would tremor from cold chills - the feeling you get from severe chakra exhaustion. The first thing he'd register would be the smell - death and blood hanging heavy in the air. He would be confused but calm - no threats or ill intent to set of any inner alarms - slowly going over the cloudy memories in his head.
There was a mission. Somewhere north of Ta no Kuni. He'd slowly digest each fact until he reached, "I killed Rin." The thought would come out like a statement - no emotional response at all. After a moment, he repeated it again, horror-struck. "I killed Rin." A mixture of shock and horror would have set in before the overwhelming sense of revulsion.
"I killed Rin."
Obito cannot guess how long Kakashi would have laid there before the shinobi conditioning kicked in. Compartmentalise. Push it all into a box and deal with it later. But after he would have scanned the area. Noted the dead bodies littering the field and clinically deduced a third party was involved. Obito doesn't want to know what happened when Kakashi realised that Rin's body was gone. Missing. But he knows the end result - no grave and no closure.
The worst part would have been the report. As the only survivor and witness, it would have to have been verbal - likely delivered straight from the hospital bed. Kakashi would have felt numb inside - his emotions still buried deep in that box making report precise and unsentimental - a string of rational, objective observations and decisions with no mention of the emotions that had driven them.
Like sheep, people would accuse him. Blame him, isolate him, spite him - anything to bring the genius prodigy down. The worst part would be that he'd believe them - those sheep and their lies.
It was my fault. I'm not fit to be a jounin, not fit to be a shinobi. I killed Obito and now I have killed Rin.
There's a sick feeling in Obito's gut as something forgotten drifts to the front of his mind.
Protect Rin … or I won't forgive you.
"Fuck."
"Fuck."
The curse rolls off his tongue (and he prays to Kami that his Baa-chan will not hear) because there's just no better way to express it. He fucked up. Strangers, their opinions and thoughts can be ignored - they don't matter. But to go against a comrade's dying wish - to fail a friend's dying wish.
Obito has fucked up.
Screw bedrest, he has some serious business to attend to.
Okay... Notes.
Fugaku-sama is still seriously ticked off. One of his clan members was put under the operating table without his knowledge and there's a possibility Obito could be used to spy on the Uchiha unknowingly. He's just rational about it since he's cooled off a bit.
I didn't realise it until now but I am putting off the Kakashi-Obito meeting - probably cause I'm scared I'll screw it up. Okay... I promise you guys. Next Chapter.
Umm... Dunno what other points to address. Ask me if you have questions - I will or will not answer depending on whether it'll be a spoiler.
Also, help would be appreciated. How do you do strike-throughs on Fanfiction?
That's it. Reviews fuel inspiration and motivation.
~ Anon