.
.
"Hokage-sama. We have some bad news."
Obito puts his papers down on his desk as the ANBU nin kneels in front of him. "A team of genin was found killed at the Land of Earth, just northwest of the Ganu mountains."
"What happened?" Obito asks, and the ANBU nin lifts his head.
"They were on a C-ranked escort mission at the request of a young woman to see her grandmother." The ANBU nin hands Obito the papers. He flips through them as the ANBU nin speaks. "As it turned out, the woman was a high-ranked target. We believe a group of mercenaries ambushed the team as they started to cross the mountain overpass."
"Why wasn't the woman vetted? Clients are supposed to be checked for all escort missions." He flips through a few photographs: pictures of the team members, the Hyuuga jounin who was supposed to supervise them.
"I don't know, Hokage-sama, but my feeling is they purposely downplayed the request because genin don't cost as much for a C-ranked mission."
"Do we know why she was targeted?"
"Hai. Our sources say it was due to a domestic dispute that had previously gone unreported. We believe the estranged husband had hired those assassins."
"How old were the genin?" Obito asks.
"They ranged from 12 to 13. Their leader was a 26-year-old jounin. He had just been newly promoted."
Obito sets his papers down on the desk. "Thank you," Obito says. "I will let their parents know."
xXx
.
It was easy to compartmentalize things when he acted as Uchiha Madara. The voice, the different ways of moving. The sneering contempt of all his enemies. He could cut off the human parts of himself at any moment, and Obito draws on this now as he personally speaks with each set of parents. They weep. He offers nothing but empty condolences. They clasp his hand and thank him.
Sunset. Obito sits in his office, looking at the photographs. The 13-year-old was a boy whose chakra reserves were thin but whose ninjutsu was proficient. The two twelve-year-olds had gone to school together and considered each other rivals of each other. The jounin was a newly promoted Hyuuga, promoted for his bloodline abilities and his proficiency in taijutsu.
A drop of water, then another, falls on top of the photographs. Obito grits his teeth and holds his head in his hands.
The world is wrong. Lives are disposable in this cruel, fake reality. He wanted to save the world for everyone, the living and the dead he'd killed to achieve those ends.
Obito spends the night crying. Not just because it was his fault they died, but because of everything. Because he failed. Because he was wrong. Because he had waded deep into a river of blood for nothing. Because his grief is overwhelming.
Rin doesn't say anything, just holds him, running her hands up and down the line of his back, then resting her cheek against the side of his hair.