Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!
It was almost six months until Tobi returned, and when he did, he seemed distracted, wary as he visited her within her room at the geisha home.
"Tobi-sama? What's the matter?"
He closed the shoji over the window and shook his head. "There is unrest within the clan and anyone outside the enclave will be punished."
"You risked punishment just for me? How sweet."
He snorted as he knelt in front of her. "You do know that if my clan decides to revolt, things will not be the same for a long time. I might have to be absent for even longer than this time."
"Six months has been your longest between your visits, but absence makes the heart grow fonder."
They chuckled at the old saying and Inko glanced at the window as a shadow flew past it. She felt nervous that this would be one of the last visits he was going to make unless he was to return to his home in the Uchiha Enclave this night. Her stomach was full of pins and needles, but she tried to look relaxed for his sake. Now that she knew there was a severe lack of time, she cut to the chase.
"What happened when you turned five years old?"
"I manifested my Sharingan."
Her eyes widened. That was impossible! No child in the Uchiha Clan had ever awakened the famous Kekkei Genkai so early! Not even the genius of the clan, Itachi! He'd done so when he was eight, and that was the earliest! Was he some sort of hidden genius that not even the clan wanted Konohgakure no Sato to find out about?! She couldn't help but be in awe of him. Something else later on must've happened for him to be a ninja yet a pacifist.
"I can see that you don't believe me, and I myself wish it wasn't true, but the moment was so clear, the day I turned five, my father treated me no longer as his firstborn son. He treated me as if I was a tool to bring the clan prestige and power, ever since our clan became less prominent, even feared, because of the Kyubi attack sixteen years ago. My life became nothing but a constant struggle to be strong, I was expected to be perfect, even after a second son was brought into the family. My father tried to do the same to him, but he didn't have the gifts I did, his eyes didn't change until he was twelve, even with tutoring. So all the focus was on me, I jumped from Genin to Jonin in the space of a couple years, but then my father set his sights on me being the youngest ANBU at eight. I had never wanted to be a ninja in the first place, so my discontent showed, even as I took the test that changed me forever."
He pressed his lips together, looking bitter. She reached out and was surprised when he took her hand, squeezing it as he continued, his voice soft with a touch of cold anger, "I was doing excellent as always, actually the lead score in the exam, when I encountered a ninja of no small caliber. He attacked me on sight, and I had to use all my skills just to dodge and block every blow. Since I was but a child, I was worn out much quicker than he, but I used a last ditch effort to slit his throat, only to find it had been a clone.
"I was so surprised that a clone could be that strong, that I didn't notice until too late that the real ninja was behind me, only halfway turned when claws dipped in a corrosive poison slashed across my body, from the top of my left shoulder all the way down to my right knee. I tried to retaliate, but had a sword shoved into my right lung, my breath stolen as I coughed up blood. I thought I was going to die when he stood over me and stomped on my chest, pushing until my ribcage snapped in two. The last thing I remember was thinking that if my father thought I was powerful enough to become an ANBU, how could he have predicted that I would be overpowered by such a powerful ninja during my exam.
"I woke in the hospital a few days later, feeling like I'd been lying there forever. My father was there, standing over me. He told me that as soon as I was healed, I would try again, but something snapped inside of me and I refused, not talking to him until I was completely healed, snubbing him to the extreme. He'd pushed me too hard, too far, too much. He hadn't thought that perhaps I hadn't grown enough physically to take on such a challenge. If he had expected me to take on such ninjas and win without even a struggle, he was dead wrong.
"When I was ten, I had grown stronger, but I no longer trusted my father to do things just fast enough that I could take it. So…I—"
He suddenly grabbed her and slammed her into a corner, his Sharingan spinning just as the window shoji slid open, a group of Uchiha ANBU entering. They looked around, her eyes wide as they seemed to find nothing and retreated, Tobi letting her go as his Kekkei Genkai vanished. She blinked and whispered, "How did you do that? The Uchiha ANBU are supposed to be able to see through any genjutsu."
"That's true, but I am a master at genjutsu that those ANBU envy," he murmured back, going back to his normal position. She followed suit, and he continued his tale once again. "I decided to do as I wished, never gaining the position of ANBU. With my breeding, I would never be able to marry outside the clan if it was up to my father, especially if the girl was from another ninja clan, for fear her genes would override my own. I am a grown man now, past the age that I should be under the jurisdiction of my parents. I won't agree to an arranged marriage, even if it's for the good of the clan."
"Even if you could pass on your skills to your posterity?"
"I would never want them to suffer as I have. If I am to marry, I want to marry a girl of my choice, and no other, and if she's part of a clan, I will be marriage-sealed."
"That's quite the strong conviction. I feel for you, for I am—" She cut herself off, knowing that she had almost gone too far by telling him what clan she was.
"Natsu, would you give me the honor of telling me your name?"
She thought hard if this was what she wanted to leave him with until they met again. Yet she had this feeling that if they did meet again, it wouldn't be under peaceful terms. She was sure, as a pacifist, he would try to stop the unrest and would get confined to his home until things were underway.
"Will you come back?"
"Yes."
"Are you certain?"
"I am. You'll see me again and I will get your name."
He stood and opened the window, looking back at her. A gentle smile came to his face before he jumped out the space and was gone.
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