A/N: And now for something completely different!
We skip ahead two months for Obito's perspective on events, in an intermission, because otherwise the coming timeskip would seem to come out of nowhereville...
When I wake up, it takes me a minute to remember why there's an elbow in my ribs.
If I was at home, all I'd feel in the morning would be my scratchy sheets and maybe some scrolls—I fall asleep at night looking at notes, sometimes. I guess sometimes the inkpot I use falls over, but that's okay because the ink always dries up sooner than that. It's not okay when the pencils I use other times stab the mattress, since it's old and deserves better than stabbings. In the morning, sunlight gets in my room from the windows and it's too bright to stay asleep for all that long, which sucks because I don't ever seem to get a lot of sleep.
There's never anyone in my apartment.
Just me.
It gets kind of tiring, being alone all the time.
I mean, I don't clean my apartment much but I just don't have people over. The place is okay. It's not that big. Maybe I wouldn't be able to have a game night anyway, without other kids having to sit on upside-down buckets and stuff.
I wouldn't know, since I never have. You kind of need more than two friends for that.
Someone decides to kick in the door then. I roll over, grumbling, but the cast on my arm gets in my way and the sunlight beats down on my face like a hammer. Then I blink, because whoever opened the door also decides to stand over me and yank the covers off.
"Obito, Hayate-chan, Iruka-chan, it's time to get up!"
Rin is the cutest girl in the entire world, but she loves mornings way too much.
"But Rin-chaaaaaan." I whine, throwing my free hand over my face. "It's way too early…"
Rin is already shoving the smaller kids out of the bed. Iruka flops to the floor with a thud, while Hayate manages to get his feet under him before promptly tripping over Iruka anyway. Rin doesn't have to drag me out of bed because I'm not dumb enough to push my luck, but even when I'm upright I don't feel too awake.
"Feeling any better, Obito?" Rin asks as the other two boys finally remember how to use their legs. Hayate is yawning and Iruka's hair's all over the place, but they're up and a sharp look from Rin sends them scurrying out of the room.
"A little, Rin-chan." I say, glancing down. My shoulder still hurts, but not as much as it had. I mean, I broke it earlier because Gai was a freak with super-strong punches, but after the medics took a look, I was okay. Rin hovered a lot and Kei kept pulling her brother off me and Kei's mom made concerned faces at me when she thought I wasn't looking, but I was really fine with that. That they were looking at all was better than being at home, you know?
"Let me see it." Rin says, and I'm about to argue before I bite my tongue and just let go. She puts one hand on my shoulder and the other against the side of my neck, and I feel myself go warm where her hands are.
There are worse things than having friends around when you're feeling like crap. It's better when it's Rin.
Rin has small hands. She always has a smile for someone who needs one. She cares, when a lot of people don't. Recently she's learned to use all of that and become a medic-nin, even if she's still a genin like Kei and me. I still think we should've made it past Team Genma and to the finals, but I guess it's not really gonna happen now. If we had, Rin could be a chūnin and get started on all the cool medical stuff Yamaguchi-sensei says she can't learn until she gets older. She would be able to learn all the medical jutsu ever, if she was just a bit closer to being a grown-up, and then maybe we'd be able to get on the road to becoming really cool.
I still want to be Hokage. It's just that I'm starting to get how long that might take. There's a long road ahead of me, with pitfalls and roadblocks and things. After all, a real Hokage wouldn't be beat up by Maito Gai. I think I might be able to take him if I train a lot more, but I can't until my shoulder heals.
So, really, the first thing to do is let Rin check up on me and see if she can speed things up.
I can feel my face heating up, so I turn my head away so she can't see it. It's not cool to blush a lot around girls. They get nasty about it, and even if Rin isn't like some other girls I know, I don't like thinking about it.
There's a knock at the door and Rin lets go of me. Getting interrupted in the middle of a checkup is so not cool.
"Hey, Rin-chan, Obito, it's almost time for breakfast."
"We'll be out in a moment, Kei-senpai." Rin says.
Kei chooses that moment to poke her head in anyway.
"Liar. If you're looking at injuries, Rin-chan, you'll be in here forever and breakfast will get cold and Mom will yell at me later about being a lousy host." Kei replies, all in one breath.
"Your mom never yells at you." I say, because I don't think I've ever seen Miyako mad before.
"Not where you can hear it." Kei says, smiling crookedly. "Anyway. Breakfast. Seriously, Rin-chan, we can get him to the hospital after we eat if you're that worried."
"If I was that worried, I'd think we should go the hospital now." Rin says.
"Hello? I'm right here and I'm hungry." I say, to keep them from arguing more.
"You okay with eating left-handed?" Kei asks.
I scoff. "Well, yeah. Been doing it since before you woke up."
"Point." Kei says. She leads the way out.
Kei always leads.
Sometimes I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to think about Kei. She's not cute or nice like Rin, or at least not in the same way. She always looks tired out, like she just rolled out of bed, and she can be mean sometimes in a way that's funny if it's not aimed at you. She talks a lot if she knows you, and she gives nice hugs when I need them. She's also stronger than me—or at least that's what the reports on us said. She doesn't act like it, though—if she did, it'd be like having two Kakashis on my team and I'm not sure I would be able to stand that. Instead, she gets into all kinds of fights with Kakashi and always is on my side.
I'm not sure how to feel about that. I'm not sure if she likes me more or thinks I can't fight on my own. I'm not sure if I should be angry at her for being like that or at Kakashi for always being a bully.
Kei bumps my shoulder as we enter the kitchen. Somehow Rin's ended up in front and Kei is back by me and there's already a conversation going between Iruka and Miyako and Hayate and Yūgao and Rin. I can't follow most of it because the littler kids always talk over each other about weird stuff.
"Something wrong, Obito?" Kei asks quietly.
Someday I'm gonna have to ask her how she always knows when my feelings aren't making any sense.
"Nah, everything's fine." I tell her, and she gives me the look that lets me know that she doesn't believe that for a second.
I'm not sure how to tell her that I'm tired of being weak and of being alone and now that I'm not alone on my birthday I'm not sure how to deal with it at all.
I've got dust in my eyes again.
Kei stops before we get within sight of the others, grabbing my hand to stop me, too. "Obito, I didn't invite you over to make you cry."
"I know that," I tell her. My voice shouldn't be squeaking but it is and I hate it.
She frowns. It's not her "I hate you and everyone else" frown that she uses when she loses to Kakashi in spars (which is pretty much all the time because she can't use her sword), or the frown she uses when she's confused because Rin is starting to speak Medic and Kei never got that far into the whole thing. She's thinking about something.
"Rin-chan, could I borrow you for a minute?" Kei calls, and I want to hit her for a second because I don't know how to deal with this and Rin doesn't need to see me fail at it.
"Yes, we were just—oh, Obito." Rin doesn't need to think before she takes my other hand, pulling herself in.
Kei puts her arms around my neck and Rin hugs me around my middle and I hug both of them unevenly because they aren't giving me a lot of room and then I really start crying.
"Mom's getting the kids out on the porch." Kei says, almost like she was going to say it anyway and the fact that they're hugging it out isn't part of it.
"No one has to see if you don't want them to." Rin says, picking up the thread without pausing.
"Well, except Mom." Kei says, and Obito can hear the wonky smile in her tone. "Mom's been wanting to hug you for ages and—"
"No! No, no, I'm fine, can we just get something to eat?" I'm babbling, I know that, and Rin pulls back enough to give me a really disappointed look that sends my stomach somewhere around my toes. When Rin gives me that look it's…it's like all kinds of bad and I feel awful after.
I push my way free because I can't stand it, being the one who always has to be picked up and put back together. On my birthday, too. I rub my sleeve over my eyes because it feels awful to cry over something so dumb even if Kei and Rin don't make fun of me for it.
Kei's gone and back before I even realize what she's doing, while Rin sticks with me. Guess all that sparring with Kakashi meant something, because she has a bowl of steamed rice with fish and dried seaweed and egg in front of me. Chopsticks, too.
"Thanks." I say, and settle down cross-legged on the floor. Kei and Rin are both giving me these looks, and I have to ignore them or I'll start again.
Kei looks at Rin, who, after a moment, sits down next to me. Then Kei squeezes my shoulder before walking out of the hallway and into the kitchen.
I can hear her saying something to her mom, while Rin sticks to me like glue.
"It's hard." I say to Rin, not even trying to start eating. "I…I don't know what to do with this."
"With what?" Rin asks, and her fingers move mine so I'm actually holding the chopsticks.
"This is…I think this is the first birthday I've had with so many people around." I admit.
Rin's face…can't decide if it's sad for me or just sad. Maybe she's feeling both.
Then she sighs, shaking her head. "Then you have to get used to it, Obito. Because me and Kei-senpai and Miyako-san and Hayate-chan…we're never going to leave you alone."
That doesn't sound like a bad idea.
Kei comes back, leading her mom. She has the kind of look that says that she's embarrassed because she feels like someone else should be embarrassed, not because she is, and I can't see why for a moment or two.
Then Miyako hugs me, in front of Rin and Kei, and then I kind of want to turn red myself.
I'm ten now and way too big for being picked up like a little kid anymore, but it still feels nice to be hugged by someone bigger than me.
I don't know what it feels like to be hugged by a mother, because I can't remember mine, but I think I have an idea.
"Happy birthday, Obito-kun." Miyako says.
"Thanks, Miyako-san." I say shakily.
Miyako lets go of me, brushing imaginary dust out of my hair with a pat. "Now, let's concentrate on what you wanted to do for your birthday." She smiles, crooked like Kei's but also warm. "Birthdays aren't for sitting around in hallways. Let's get to the rest of it before the sun burns out."
You know what? I think the big thing to take away from here is to not sweat the small stuff. I mean, yeah, I'm not great at being a good person and I want too much stuff and I can't deal with people being around all the time, but it's my birthday. I'm surrounding by people I like, who like me back. Whether I got up with a foot that fell asleep on me, or if I was a bit twitchy? That's all right. That's okay. Because whatever I do next…well…
It's going to be awesome.
Here's to another awesome year with my precious people.
A/N: I hope that cleared up a few things about Obito's relationships with other people. If it didn't, well, that's what the rest of the story is for. :P
Also, feel free to ask questions in the reviews, to ask me where the heck I was over the last month (school-work-school, in that order), and to threaten to club me over the head with a halibut. Thank you to everyone who did review the last chapter, and a happy new year to everyone else!