VIII: mistake

(Obito's P.O.V)

It took him one moment to realize his mistake when the little girl attempted to attack him. Now that he paid attention to the spot where she used to sit, there was something different about her chakra. It wasn't the same amount of it, neither did it follow the same flowing paths as of the original. "Damn it, clones." So she didn't even forget about the task he gave her as he expected. It kind of surprised him that she showed such creativity to deceive him like that, with fake chakra clones that would probably even distract his sharingarn for a few seconds. Not bad. "Consider me impressed." He murmured as he felt the weight of the girl's body on his back more and more and finally managed to dematerialize himself before she would bump into him completely. "Sorry, Zetsu." His old friend's eyes widened dramatically as he realized what Obito was about to do but all he could bring himself to do was to breath in sharply before the girl fell through the young Uchiha and right onto Zetsu's body. Obito couldn't help himself but laugh a little at the sound of Zetsu being in pain because of the weight of such a little girl. Well, she had been faster as he ever expected her to be. This had to be something that he would be able to make good use of once she trusted them.

"Well, at least we know how your voice sounds now, huh? Congratulations, you were able to do something Zetsu couldn't for the past few years within a few weeks of watching me." The young Uchiha helped the girl get up from Zetsu who looked like he would love to punch him in his face right now and grinned behind his mask. Hatake looked at Zetsu when she took Obitos hand for the second time now and hurried up to stand up from him before she turned around and tried to help him up too. "I'm sorry, Zetsu-sensei." Her voice was quiet – you could even notice that she had not been talking much lately – and apologetic for hurting him. Obito's friend didn't really care and let the girl help him get up before he laid a hand on her knee. She pitched it when she "landed" on him so he simply healed it for her before it would cause her more pain.

"When Tobi arrived here, I healed him too, you know? He sometimes seems to forget that." He glanced at Obito lifting one of his fingers to underline his words. "Yeah, whatever." The masked man crossed his arms and laughed mockingly, knowing this would only tease Zetsu more and unexpectedly heard a little chuckle of the silver haired girl beside them as he left the two of them alone in the training part of the cave. It seemed so carefree and reminded him of the time when he had been able to hear Rin laugh like that. How sarcastic.

Her laugh was just as fragile as her whole person seemed to be. So young and still white like a blank piece of paper. "Do you think we can make her switch sides? Without smearing blood on her hands, Sensei?" Madara turned his back on Obito, sighing quietly. "You don't really like her, do you?" Protest rose up within him while he took off his mask. "It's just.. We're working on a perfect genjutsu to bring peace to this world.. To make everything right again.. And we want to waste our time for such a thing as revenge?" The old man let himself fall onto his chair, closing his eyes.

"When did you let go of your whole revenge on Hatake Kakashi thing? It's not like one action of vengeance would change anything in this rotten world. Just be aware of that we can't let her leave here as a prisoner forever and as long as she still has the village of Konohagakure behind her, they will search for her. They will try to save her and if that moment comes, they will take her away. She knows the weakness of your Kamui now. Better think about that twice. You're dismissed." Obito was about to answer as he realized that talking to Madara wouldn't bring him any further.

Night came and he watched the little girl sleeping in her corner. Making the chakra clones had drained almost everything of her chakra and she would have to rest for quite a time now before they would continue their training together tomorrow. Now that he was looking at her like that, she seemed to be the innocence in person, not able to do anyone any harm and it was hard for Obito to believe that this kid was the little sister of that Kakashi bastard. Carefully he dared to touch the deeply red mark on her cheek again before letting his hand rest on the silvery hair of Hatake for some minutes. He felt sorry for her, honestly sorry for taking her and wanting to take her that childish innocence just to get his revenge on Kakashi but after she understood the principle of his eye technique he wouldn't have any choice but not letting her go as Madara had said. Somehow he had to make the best out of the situation now, for her and for himself, so that Konoha would stop looking for her.

To do that the two of them would have to train on a way higher level together, making her a shinobi that could survive while being permanently on the run with Madaras-sensei, Zetsu and himself. It literally made his heart ache when he realized that he would have to turn her into a high skilled killing machine, a missing-nin like himself and by that taking her home away from her but at this moment he had to decide between her having her old life back or him fulfilling his dream of the infinite tsukuyomi.

He wouldn't give the life of the girl he barely knew, who was the sister of the guy who killed his true love, a higher priority than his own selfish goals. It was this night when Obito decided that he had to make her time here as tolerable as it could be as an excuse that she would never be able to go home again. Time passed and Madara and his student thought of an ultimate plan for tricking her into double-crossing the village hidden behind the leafs by starting the assassination of the powerful Hyuuga-clan which would make on one side the upcoming war a lot easier for them and on the other side make them able to get hold of the Byakugan themselves. Since Hatake was a taijutsu shinobi, the Byakugan would perfect her style of fighting and make her the ultimate backup.