CHAPTER 12: OBIHINA

There will be a continuation of this chapter. If anyone likes it enough, I may expand on it as it's own story. I hope this doesn't seem too wild. I tried to make it realistic.

Italics are dreams.

I'm not sure about the next chapter, so leave some pairing recommendations.

A small child, no older than six, had wandered too far into the forest. Her eyes big and nervous, she screamed her father's name into the void-like forest.

Hours later, after falling asleep in the woods, tired and crying, she'd woken up in a bed. But it wasn't her own. A man, sat quietly in the corner of the room, reading a thick book.

He was wearing a heavy cloak, from what she saw. "F-father?" She asked him. Her pale eyes squinted to see past the darkness.

"Oh, good morning." The boy said, a smile in his voice. He was oddly cheerful for a man covered head to toe.

"W-who are you?!" She squealed, hiding behind the quilt she'd been covered with. Her eyes began to fill with worried tears.

The young man stood up slowly, as to not scare her. "Its okay, now. Don't cry. I'm going to take you home today. What's your name?" he seemed to stop in his tracks when he got close enough to see her irises. She was undeniably Hyuuga. From Konoha. And there weren't any marks on her forehead from what he saw.

The small girl nervously looked around before answering him. "Hy-Hyuuga Hinata." She mumbled, not looking him in the eye.

The young man nodded slowly. "Alright. What can I do to help you?" He says after a moment of silence. She was trembling like a leaf in fall.

She sniffled, feeling tears pour from her eyes.

"My-my…" she slowed her breaths to speak. "My mama is gone. That's what father told me…. I was just looking for her at the waterfall…." She trailed off, mumbling about falling and scraping her knees.

She pulled the blanket from her legs to reveal that he'd bandaged the heavy scrapes up for her.

"Oh.," she said slowly.

The young man smiled to himself. She was adorable, like a small animal was, but the realization of what she'd told him to to hit like a ton of bricks. He'd lost his parents.

"I will take you to the village as soon as we eat," he announced. His eyes lingered on the girl's hair for a few moments before he got up and left the room.

She was interesting, the small girl. He'd been alone for almost 12 years. Well, he was with Zetsu.

After a few moments in the makeshift kitchen, the man came back to the room where the stuttering child was.

He'd prepared rice balls the night before when he realized he'd have company the next day.

It was almost saddening that he'd be alone again after he took her home.

"What's your name?" She asks timidly.

The young man rose a brow. "My name is Obito." He says slowly. Regretting his choice of words, he quickly backed up. "But I go by Tobi." young children weren't very clever most of the time. He could let her off knowing the truth. She'd probably forget it in a day, anyway.

He slowly began to panic. He'd let it slip!

He had to take the girl back home. He drew a line when it came to children. He couldn't harm an innocent child.

Obito was a relatively popular name now. Maybe they wouldn't even realize.

The young man handed her the wooden plate with steady hands. "It's fish flake rice balls with crab filling. I didn't have much else available last night, gomenasai." it was quite the mature dish, but she probably grew up eating things far more adult-ish than that.

The young girl didn't say so, but she hated fish. But she was taught to never question or bite the hand that feeds you. And she didn't know this man, either. He'd been kind enough to save her from being taken by the elements. So, she ate the food that was given to her growling tummy.

It wasn't half as bad as she expected. With a smile, she took one last bite. "Th-thank you, Tobi-san!" She shyly smiled at him. In this light, she was able to see his face more clearly. He'd removed the mask a few minutes ago to eat his food. It was a scary mask, she concluded. He had hefty scarring on one side of his face, she noticed.

"Was it alright? I was never the greatest cook." He said sheepishly. It was as if he was having a conversation with a 12-year-old, not a 7-year-old. She was very intelligent for such a young child. But she'd probably already started training to become a kunoichi. No surprise there. This world was truly flawed.

Perhaps this child could be a reason to… go back?

No.

With a stubborn gaze, he pulled the mask back over his face.

He could've erased her memories from that night. He could've made her forget his name. But something was telling him to not mess with her brain. He didn't want to alter her memories of a kind man saving her from a deadly fate in the forest. She was a child, thankful for her hero. It seemed almost wrong to change her memories of him.

So, he dropped her off in the village, unseen. And he temporarily locked the memories from the night before away, so they wouldn't be entering the forefront of her brain anytime soon. She may or may not dream about what happened in the near future, but to her, it was only a dream. Right?

He could only hope so. He should've killed her or maybe use her eyes for something in his plans.

But fate intervened.

And he didn't kill kids.

5 years later.

Hinata glanced at Kiba who was chasing her side, Akamaru running ahead of them. "Grab the key!" She shouted at the Inuzuka. Abruptly stopping in her tracks, she whipped around to knock one of the other ninjas from their spot in the treetops.

It was a game between the three teams in Konoha 11, to attach a key to the neck of a feral cat. Whichever team got the key was bought ninja gear, paid for by the other teams.

It may sound like a childish game to outsiders, but even their sensei knew that this was a very real mission to the young ninja. They used all kinds of jutsu to stop one another. Like Leapfrog, they tripped over one another to get the key.

Turns out, she'd knocked Shikamaru Nara from the branch. She gulped the heavy lump in her throat. That wasn't a good idea. She was a very good tactician, but Shikamaru was the best. He could outsmart the Hokage three times over if he wanted to.

Feeling nervous, she looked down to see if he was okay. "Wh-what?" She asks herself, not seeing him where he'd fallen. Did he use a bunshin?

Her Byakugan activated, she didn't see him anywhere, but Sasuke and Naruto were hot on her heels, and that meant that they could easily gang up on Kiba and Shino.

Where was Ino and Sakura and Choji?

She deactivated her Byakugan, preferring to not know where they were to make it more interesting. It was almost cheating, to use her dojutsu. Too bad it was a terrible idea. Too bad that the one simple action caused everything to unravel.

With a kick to her side, the young Uchiha had knocked her from the heavy branch. She fell, but not after hitting her head so hard the world went black.

The Hyuuga, now incapacitated, dropped into Kakashi's arms. Thankfully, he'd been around to keep her from falling to possibly her death, as she was already out when she hit his arms.

"Hinata?" He opened her eyelid and peered into her almost non-existent pupils. "Damn it." Ino and Sakura had knocked each other out only fifteen minutes ago. They needed to do something to keep this game from getting out of hand.

The silver-haired ninja walked out into the opening where Kurenai stood.

"Who got her? Did she fall?" Kurenai Quickly hurried over to the pair and examined the girl.

"Sasuke. I caught her but she hit her head pretty hard. I'm worried she has a concussion." His tone set the woman on edge. "Should we take her to the hospital?" He looked down at the previously sweating teen.

Kurenai nodded. "It's probably the best thing for her right now. I'm going to go see where they're at in the game."

Obito…

Obito.

Obito.

OBITO!

The young child glanced around her room, but every move she made failed. It was like she was glued to her bed on the floor. All she could do was listen to the flow of her own blood in her ears. What was happening? What… what was that?

Her pale eyes slid to the dark, cloaked figure in the corner of her room.

"Are you hungry?" It said.

That voice…

It was familiar.

"Are you hungry, Hinata?"

It slowly came toward her. She couldn't even scream. Her teeth were grinding together, but her jaw wouldn't lift.

Not a sound escaped her mouth.

"The world is ending, Hinata. Look out there."

His shrouded arm lifted and pointed toward the window. "It's ending, Hinata."

She couldn't even begin to understand the words he spoke. Their meaning was obtuse. It was abstract art. But she was panicking. She was sweating. There was no time to think of abstract art. She needed to get up. It was getting hot.

"It's….. ending.."

Her pale eyes flickered to the window, seeing the orange tint dancing across her alabaster walls. Flames rose high above the ground. He was right.

"Get up." It ordered, now standing over her stiff body.

She couldn't begin to manage to utter a word, much less lift her body off the floor.

What was he going to do?

Was she going to die?

After 30 seconds of trial and error, a rumble escaped her throat. She called out for help, into the void.

Its body dropped to its knees and straddled her with its hand around her throat.

As he pressed his thumb into the base of her neck, her voice finally came to her.

"OBITO!!!!"

Her words reached the surface of the nightmare, startling the jounin carrying her to the hospital.

Kakashi abruptly stopped walking. "What.. did you say?"

The Hyuuga woke up, her chest heaving and her arms thrashing around. "Let me down!"

Kakashi swallowed, putting the preteen down on the ground.

She stood, and swung her head around. "Obito..?" She mumbled.

The masked man stepped closer to her, placing both of his hands on her shoulders. "Hinata-chan, how do you know that name?"

As quickly as the dream ended, the memories rushed back to her. "That's who saved me… I thought I'd forgotten. He told me his name…" she trailed off, mumbling about something her father said. Panting, she sat on the ground. The thoughts rushing back into her head caused great amounts of anxiety.

Kakashi stooped down to meet her eyes. "I need you to follow me, Hinata."

"What is it, copy-nin?" Tsunade barely looked up at the incoming presence. "Well, spit it out?" Her impatient words urged him to speak.

"Hinata Hyuuga needs to speak with you," he announced. His voice seemed off, so the blonde finally looked up from her mound of paperwork.

Hinata slowly inched from behind the jounin. "Good afternoon, Lady Tsunade." She spoke so softly, you almost had to lean forward to understand her. "Obito... that's the name of the man who saved me all those years ago.."

Tsunade narrowed her honey-colored eyes. "What's the meaning of this? Saved you from what?"

Hinata timidly stared at her sandals. "I wandered around outside the village walls as a child. My guardian had fallen asleep, and so I looked for my mother.." her jumbled, confusing words only agitated the Hokage even more. "I got lost, and fell asleep after walking for hours."

Everyone in the room felt the tension rise as she continued. "I woke up, with my knees bandaged. I remember it now… Mountains graveyard!" The words came back to her mind as if she was watching a show in her brain. "That's what he called it. That's where the cave was."

Kakashi felt himself become more and more nauseous as the girl spoke. She was talking about him. The boys whose empty grave he visited every week. But, could this be a mere dream?

Tsunade stiffly stood to her feet. "If this is in fact… Obito Uchiha you're talking about, this stirs everything up. His death was years ago... this doesn't seem right." Tsunade looked around the room at the binders in the bookshelves. Hastily, she walked over and began looking over the labels.

If Hinata was announced as a missing child, it would've been reported to the Hokage and documented. Missing children cases are taken very seriously everywhere, and most ended in tragedy. It's a miracle she wasn't spotted with him coming back to the village. Was this truly him? How could this be happening?

He was dead. Everyone heard of the tales and the story of his sacrifice. He was crushed by rocks from what Kakashi and Rin Nohara claimed. How could he be alive and able to walk miles with a child in his arms?

Flipping through the pages and years of documentation, her name was there. The date and time was correct to her claims.

"Hyuuga Hinata, reported missing at 11:47pm." Tsunade read aloud. "Could this be…. True? I wonder.. why did she just remember this?"

The blonde mumbled to herself, letting Kakashi interrupt. "He awakened his Sharingan. He could've easily manipulated her memories from the night and the day of with genjutsu."

Tsunade stretched her lips into a thin line. "He didn't.. hurt you? Did he?" she stared at the young woman partially hidden behind Kakashi.

Hinata shook her head adamantly. "No, not from what I can remember.."

Tsunade slapped the binder shut. "I need Yamanaka Inoichi in here now." She screamed to the ANBU standing outside her office.

"Hai, Lady Tsunade." One sounded through the door.

If you liked it, leave a review. It helps motivate me to write more. Any recommendations for what should happen in this particular story would be helpful.