TammyHybrid21: Haha, I just love how you're mad at Kuro at one second and then sad about Obito another second later XD this chapter has more fluff towards the end, but other than that it's just POV and theories. Next chapter will be even longer and will have lots more feels. Probably. Might be chapter 6, but I'm not a psychic. And "Potato-chan" came from another fanfiction. I forgot what it's called, but Sasuke and Itachi switch places, and Sasuke calls Minato "Potato-chan" and Kushina "Tomato-chan". Thanks for your review.

Shikiyamachi: Lol. That's good to hear. And Sakura will play a factor in this, and so will Sasuke. To some consent, I guess. And this chapter (towards the end, at least) shows Kushina…uh, well, never mind, you'll just havta read ^_^ lol, thanks for your review.

Such frequent updates. I know. But Ive had so much time on my hands because all of my friends are out of town or spending time with visiting family that it's making me feel lonely…lol.

THE LONGEST CHAPTER I HAVE EVER WRITTEN FOR THIS STORY. And this still doesn't beat my longest, which is 4.6k. Original word count: 4.5k~

Recommended songs: Our Demons by The Glitch Mob (Filous Remix) and Time Bomb by Feint & Boyinaband feat. Veela.

Enjoy my fantasmagorical chapter :p

Chapter 4: Within the Beams of Warmth

"Explain. Now. Why didn't you get Naruto back?" Kushina seethed.

Minato winced. "I…tried…but he refused to give him back."

The Uzumaki glared, smashing her fist on the chair. "And that was enough to hold you back?!" she screamed.

Kakashi winced as well. "Let's start from the beginning," he began timidly, "we were fighting pretty desperately to get him back…but we learned who had taken him…"

"And who was it? Huh? Whoever it is, I'll find him and crush him dattebane!" she shouted.

"It was Obito," Minato stared bluntly. "He…lived, and was taken in by this thing that wants Naruto dead."

Kushina stared in shock, her rage quickly forgotten. "O-Obito? He's…he's alive?" she sputtered.

"Maybe," Kakashi murmured from his hospital bed. "That thing, or 'Kuro Zetsu' got him pretty bad. He was practically dead."

The Uzumaki paled dramatically, her lips forming a thin line as she turned her head towards Minato for answers. "And we aren't searching for him because…?"

"He wanted us to stay away," the blonde murmured. "Apparently Kuro Zetsu is near impossible to kill. He wants us to keep away from both Kuro and himself."

"That's not like him…why is he running?" she questioned.

"Well, you see…" Minato started nervously, knowing that what he was about to explain to his wife was going to infuriate her, "…he, um, was treated like, um, I guess you could say…" he paused, his voice cracking when he continued a few seconds later, "…a slave. He had lethal seals on the hand cuffs that were chained to a gunbai…"

The red haired Uzumaki's face went red with fury. She stood up, her body shaking with rage. "Minato," she said.

The Namikaze froze. "Y-yes, sweetheart…?"

"I'll be back in a bit," she said as she turned and stomped off, slamming the door shut. An unfortunate nurse just so happened to bump into her, making her shout, "Move, you whore!" before proceeding down the hallway.

Minato shivered. "That poor girl…"

Sakura was beyond confused. She, along with the rest of Team Kakashi, had hopped back eighteen or so years because everybody but themselves had gotten caught up in Mugen Tsukuyomi after it was cast. Even the Obito of that time got caught up in it. Now she was back—she didn't know where Kakashi was, but he was most likely in Konoha, Naruto was probably in his infant body and Sasuke was out gathering information about Madara and Obito's whereabouts, since they weren't in Mountains' Graveyard anymore.

But Obito was here, and she had more than enough time to tell him. He wasn't supposed to be discharged along with Naruto for another month or so. Her options were be blunt and calm, or be hostile and interrogate the hell out of him all the while scaring the shit out of the poor kid.

Being blunt seem more appropriate, so she went with that.

Not to mention, she was his assigned doctor and nurse. So it would be so much more easier on her.

She slid open the door, her eyes trailing towards the Uchiha. She blinked. "Your up."

He turned his head towards her, blinking and giving her the "of course I am" look. He simply nodded, his eyes trailing back to the mountain that could be seen outside. He was staring at it, and she didn't know why. She walked up to him, sitting on the seat next to him.

They stayed in silence for a few minutes, Sakura shifting uncomfortably every now and then as time passed by. Obito finally turned his head back towards her, his unsurprisingly calm façade making her feel slightly more uncomfortable. "…You look like you want to talk," he spoke surprisingly quietly.

The Haruno blinked again. Was he always this quiet? From what I remember, he was a confident shinobi with power…now he's just comparable to a scarred kitten… "Uh, I do," she said. "Uh, do you believe in time travel? Or dimension travel? As in, a parallel dimension, maybe?"

"Dimension travel is eligible," he stated. "Parallel is a little bit harder to believe, but it's possible. Time travel is impossible. Simple as that."

Sakura frowned. "What makes you say that?"

Obito stared at her again, before continuing with slight reluctance, "First off, there are souls. There can only be one of each, so if there are two souls existing at once, than the weaker one would shatter and scatter. Second of all, if you were to go back, you would need to turn space backwards along with the world. Space is infinite. Not even the bijū can accomplish that, even when combined and completed. Time travel is impossible, but combined with dimension travel, it should be possible."

"What makes you say that?"

"When time travel is done in an original dimension, it'll inevitably get destroyed because souls would be duplicated and that can't happen. Which is why there is always a secondary dimension—a copy of the original. If anybody were to survive the destroyed first dimension, they would travel to the second. But there will be error because of the extra few souls, and as a result, the secondary dimension will be different in some sort of aspect," Obito explained.

Sakura looked surprised. "You know a lot about that kind of thing."

The Uchiha slowly nodded. "I've been doing research on it ever since I was a kid. I created a jutsu that probably doesn't work that centers around that theory," he murmured. "I taught it to a friend. Don't even know if he'll use it…I don't even know if he remembered it."

Sakura waved her hand in dismissal. "No, he remembered."

The one-eyed teen glanced at her, his eye narrowing. "And how do you know?"

"Hatake Kakashi used that jutsu on himself, me, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto," she replied.

Obito stared at her, hiding his surprise. "Prove it. What are the hand seals and the requirements?"

"Requirements are the souls that wish to travel, and more than one chakra signature. Hand seals are ram, horse, monkey, dragon, tiger and ram," she said.

He continued staring at her, searching for any source of lies she might've told, but found none despite him using tricks Madara taught him. "Fair enough. So, why are you here?"

"The Mugen Tsukuyomi was cast, and we couldn't break it," Sakura explained. "Kakashi-sensei used Ijigen Jutsu, and we ended up here a few hours ago." She frowned, "Actually, I got a job here not even fifteen minutes after you showed up. Happened on the spot."

"So you arrived fifteen minutes prior to my arrival to this hospital," Obito concluded half to himself. He chuckled dryly, looking outside the window again as a small and unnoticeable smirk formed on his face. I wonder who's freaking out more…?

One month later…

"I'm bored! How much longer?"

Obito turned his head toward Guruguru, glaring at the mutated spawn of whatever. His expression screamed "sit down and shut up, or else I kill you", but Guruguru brushed it off as nothing. Both mutated humans did nothing over the last month. Obito, on the other hand, was trained by Sakura; she taught him how to feed a newborn, what to do after feeding the newborn, how to prepare a bottle for a newborn, and so forth.

It was exhausting—Naruto had to be fed every two hours the first few weeks, and he was stuck with it half of the time. And while it was exhausting, he found it to be worth it, because now he wasn't as clueless as before. Plus he gained patience.

But his patience was running thin with Guruguru asking constantly when the group could leave the hospital.

"Stop terrorizing the poor thing," Shiro Zetsu said. "You might break him…"

"I don't break him," Guruguru argued back. "I bother him. There's a difference."

"No there isn't."

"Your mom."

"Do you ever shut your mouth?"

"You wish," Guruguru shot back.

Obito glared at the two, little baby Naruto staring at the two bickering clones with wide, dark and undeveloped eyes. The Uchiha sighed, purposely blocking out their bickering and turning back to the four week old at the end of the bed, who laid on his back on a spread out orange-red blanket—the exact same blanket he had when he was taken from Konoha. Sakura had washed it, and had also given him some new clothes, blankets and other stuff.

Thing was, he didn't have a house.

But he was thinking of building a new one of the mountain via Wood Release. It was close to civilization, but it was far enough to retreat from danger for just in case. Not to mention, it was surrounded heavily by trees, and there was a small lake on the southern side—next to where he planned it on being.

Perfect for training, too.

"—fuck yourself!"

Obito's head snapped towards Shiro Zetsu and Guruguru, death glaring the two of them down. "Repeat that," he snarled. "I dare you to repeat that."

"R-repeat what?" Shiro Zetsu stuttered, obviously surprised by how mad Obito sounded.

Obito narrowed his eyes. "That's what I thought," he muttered, turning back to Naruto to swaddle the newborn up to go. "We're leaving any second, you know. Sakura is literally down the hall to inform us…"

Shiro Zetsu opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when the hospital door opened, said doctor strolling in. She turned her green eyes towards the two clones. She sighed. "I could hear you two all the way down the hall. Please keep it down, will ya? I'll be getting an earful if the head doctor hears of this…"

"Can we leave?!" Guruguru exclaimed eagerly.

The Haruno eyed him, annoyance making her face twist. "No."

"Dammit…" he whined.

"I still have to discuss some things with Sakura," Obito pointed out. "Go to the southern base of the mountain. I'll meet you guys there."

"'Kay. See ya later, Uchiha-chan~!" Guruguru waved, sinking into the ground along with Shiro.

Obito turned his head towards Sakura. He stared for a few long lasting moments, expecting the pink haired dimension and time traveling kunoichi to speak. She stared back, shifting underneath his stare. She squinted. "Your stare is ridiculous."

He blinked. "You looked like you wanted to say something," he said. "I was simply waiting."

"You're killin' me," she dead panned. She sighed. "Well, anyways, before you leave—"

"I'm not leaving," he interrupted. "You think to run around with this?" He gestured towards the cooing little Naruto.

"Okay…well, anyways…let's just say that your soul theory is true, about the duplicate soul thing," she continued. "What happens to one of the souls?"

"It's a battle of purity, really," Obito started, "…whichever has little to no hatred will win."

Sakura frowned. "Naruto defeated his hatred at Shinjitsu no Taki, though. So wouldn't he have won?"

"Not necessarily," Obito said. "It depends on what he fought it against; was it an aged person or a newborn?"

"Well, it was a newborn…" she murmured.

"Then the newborn would obviously win," he stated bluntly. "Newborns know nothing of the world; they would win because of how pure their souls are."

"So…what of the Naruto we know…?"

"Gone. Dead." Obito winced at her pained look. His calm façade turned into a sympathetic look. "Shards of his soul are still around, some fragments here and there to influence thoughts…so he isn't really gone. You'll know what I mean eventually."

The Haruno frowned, her hands brushing through Naruto's hair, making him turn his head to stare at her with wide eyes. "Is he…a jinchūriki?"

"If he was, then he would be in Konoha under the protection of her soldiers," Obito pointed out. He swung his legs over the bed, stretching and standing up. He scooped Naruto up, looking at Sakura. His eye narrowed as he walked up to the door, strolling out of the room with Sakura closely following with Naruto's baby bag over her shoulder. "I would not stress about it. Worrying about the little things will add a grey hair to that bright pink hair of yours."

Sakura blinked dumbly. "Are you kidding me? This is huge! He's fucking dead, and you're telling me not to worry about it?"

Obito turned his head towards her, abruptly stopping the walk and narrowing his eye again. "Yes."

"What the fuck," she seethed silently. "Why are you so relaxed about it? Shannaro!"

"I am not relaxed about it," he shot back, "because my world is on the verge of shattering." He started walking again, pressing the elevator button to go down to the first floor. It rang, and the two stepped in. "I expect you guys to not mess up."

"Okay, first off, I have no idea what I'm doing," Sakura shot back, "and second of all, it's not my fault! Disaster happened."

"You tip universal balance off just by existing," Obito pointed out quietly. He sighed. "Look, just keep doing what you're doing. I know my stuff, and if anything off is happening, don't freak out."

"How do you know so much?" she questioned. "The Obito of the initial dimension was so much more different…"

"Well, Obito-ichijikai shanked people with power first and then knowledge," Obito replied. "Obito-nijiteki—me—shanks people with knowledge first, and then power. I just so happen to know a lot more about dimension and time travel theories than most."

"Impressive," Sakura admired with a grin.

"Hn." His Sharingan eye spun into existence, his Kamui molding and activating. "I'll be living by the southern base of the mountain. Have Kakashi stop by sometime. The bastard and your other companion need to be informed of certain things as well."

The Haruno simply nodded dumbly, watching as the rogue Uchiha disappeared into his dimension, leaving her to ponder in the silent and empty elevator.

"You know, I find this to be complete and utter BS," Guruguru remarked as he followed Obito through the mountain's forest. There was a thing sheet of mist on the floor, reflecting the dawn. He sighed childishly, kicking a pine cone into a tree. "Settling down is complete and utter BS, too. I don't wanna calm down. I wanna travel and beat Kuro's ass! Why can't we do that?"

"Because logic suggests that a newborn baby can't handle the outside world like we can," Obito dead panned. "And besides, this place is good for hiding. I can hear a waterfall nearby. We should be getting close to the place where I want to settle down at."

"How the hell do you know this place?" Shiro questioned as his eye scanned the forest surrounding him. He snorted. "Did you sneak out?"

"Yes." Obito stopped walking, looking left and right. He stretched his hearing, and found a silent clearing not too far away from the waterfall to his right. On the other side was a stream, but the area was much more messier and had more dangerous wildlife in it. So he turned right, stepping over a fallen tree trunk. "Kamui works wonders, doesn't it?"

"Cheater," Guruguru huffed.

"Ninja cheat. That's fact," Obito countered. "By the way, if you two are going to bicker, you are sleeping outside. If you guys even think to wake Naruto up, then you're going to be the ones who take care of him. I am dead serious about that."

Shiro squinted in amusement. "He used proper grammar. He's super serious, Tobi-chan—" He stopped talking when he gained a one-eyed glare, settling for a grin of amusement while he shut his mouth.

"Since your so serious right now," Guruguru started, "what's the plan? You know we can't keep Naruto for eternity, no matter what. He's going to question your actions pretty damn soon once he gets to a certain age."

"He won't," Obito muttered. "He'll return to Konoha when he's seven, around the time when he's age-appropriate to survive on his own as a ninja."

"We aren't in war anymore," Shiro Zetsu pointed out. "Don't you think that's a bit harsh by your guys' standards?"

"This peace is an illusion," Obito countered smoothly and quietly. "I can just see it. Kuro is undoubtedly lying low to start the Fourth World War."

Hatake Kakashi was a man of composure and strength. He was perverted, lazy and sometimes an annoying little smart ass, but he was still powerful. He could kill without any hesitation, and he had a strong and fearsome reputation for a reason.

He was the creator of the Chidori and Raikiri, and wielded a Sharingan despite him not being an Uchiha thanks to his alive and breathing Uchiha friend and former teammate. He expected odd things to happen to him, both expected and unexpected.

What was happening to him was both; he expected Ijigen Jutsu at work, but he didn't expect Naruto to be "kidnapped" and to not be made a jinchūriki. He also didn't expect for both Minato and Kushina to be alive, and he sure as hell didn't expect Obito to be a tortured "villain". It didn't happen last time, so he couldn't help be ask himself so many times what had changed Obito.

Possibly… he thought. It might be possible that Naruto travelled further back…and influenced Obito…it somewhat explains why I haven't run into him…but where are Sasuke and Sakura?

"…arged."

Kakashi turned his head towards Minato, who turned out to be talking to him. The Hatake blinked dumbly. "Hm? Did you say something, sensei?"

The Namikaze sighed, glaring. "Your characteristics are annoying me more than ever. I'm starting to miss the brat with the stick up his ass."

"Uh…sorry?" Kakashi apologized in a questioning manner.

Kushina giggled, mirth sparkling in her eyes. "Don't be. The sissy is just mad because he was talking to you for two minutes straight about hospital discharges and whatnot."

"…Oh," Kakashi mumbled. It was all he could manage, really. He was still not used to their presences being back, albeit it was true he was extremely glad that they were alive and not illusions created from his mind like how he was used to seeing during his ANBU days. "When are we being discharged?"

"You're being discharged later today," Minato stated irritably. "I'm stuck here for another week. And even after that, I'd have to walk around with crutches for another few weeks. Wonderful, isn't it?"

The Hatake stared. "That's nice. Is Tsunade-sama staying in Konoha?"

Kushina sighed. "She said that won't decide yet. But I wouldn't be surprise if she did leave. The poor woman isn't exactly in the best shape 'ttebane."

And let's hope she doesn't stay that way for much longer… he thought. He looked at the aggravated Minato. "Aren't you going to do anything about it? Having her around will be extremely beneficial, you know…"

"Who doesn't know?" Kushina grumbled half to herself.

Minato shook his head. "We have enough chaos going on right now. Besides, I dragged Tsunade-hime through something unnecessary. I don't need to drag her through anything else."

"That's fair…I guess…" Kakashi murmured. He blinked. "When are we going to visit Obito and Naruto?"

"When I'm out of this damned hospital," Minato stated. "We've been stuck in here for an entire month!" He slammed his hand on the pillow that was resting on his uninjured thigh like he was slamming his hand on his desk. "I'm sick of it! Do you have any idea how much paperwork I have to catch up on?! This is ridiculous, I'm getting too old for this shit…"

Kakashi simply sighed, tuning out his sensei's ranting and focusing on his own thoughts in his own world.

And somehow, he found himself waking up on Minato's couch inside of his house. He blinked dumbly, quickly sitting up and turning his head towards the kitchen where Kushina was cooking ramen. His blinked again.

"Morning," she said. "You slept pretty good. Heard ya talkin' in your sleep about Obito. Is he your new lover now?"

Kakashi rolled his eye. "It's not my fault…"

"Ah, so you have a subconscious desire for him dattebane!"

"No."

"Now you're in denial~, ooo~!"

"Kushina…"

She grinned in amusement, dishing up ramen and passing it down to him as he sat at the dining room table. "I'm teasing, I'm teasing…"

He rolled his eye again, taking the chopsticks she handed out to him and breaking them apart. "Itadakimasu."

"Itadakimasu dattebane!" Instantly, Kushina started eating.

Kakashi rolled his eye for the third time, and started eating through his mask miraculously soon after. "So what happened? I don't remember being discharged from the hospital," he said.

The Uzumaki paused, chewing the rest of her food with an alarmingly serious face. "You fainted from exhaustion," she explained. "Doctor gave orders to just let you rest, so you were discharged from the hospital, and I've kept an eye on you ever since. You slept for fifteen hours straight, did ya notice that?"

The fifteen year old jōnin slowly nodded. He had probably the best sleep in a long time, but for some reason he didn't remember it. He just remembered drifting off into Wonder Land and pondering over everything.

"Kakashi, is something the matter?" Kushina asked. "You've been caught staring at me and Minato quite a few times, and not to mention, you collapsed from physical exhaustion, which suggests you haven't been sleeping. Seriously, man, don't be dishonest with me dattebane! Your future lady will pummel you if you ain't telling her anything."

It was true, Kakashi hadn't been sleeping at all during the past few weeks in the hospital, if staying up all night and staring up at the ceiling for many long hours didn't say anything. He got sleep, but when he did, it was light and it showed off potential and upcoming nightmares. He sighed in aggravation. "Nothing's wrong."

She glared. "Yeah, and the Kyūbi loves humankind. C'mon Kakashi, don't pull a dick move. You know that we'd listen, regardless of the oddity of the problem."

No, he thought, the "oddity" of my current situation doesn't even need a scale to rate how odd it is. He settled for a reluctant sigh. "…Okay, okay. I've had a little bit of trouble sleeping…" he mumbled. "And adding to the fact that Obito is alive and is emotionally and psychologically tortured isn't helping. At all."

Kushina sighed, staring down at the broth in her ramen bowl. "…What's he like now?" she questioned quietly.

Kakashi paused himself, thinking back to the month before. "…Still an idiot, I guess," he murmured. "Quiet and timid, and comparable to a scarred kitten. But he's gotten rather strong, considering he managed to keep up with all three of us without gaining any sort of wounds."

"So he got away unharmed?"

"Far from it," Kakashi said. "This black creature thing," AKA Kuro Zetsu… "came out of literally nowhere. It ended up punching him into a cement block, while also activating all three seals and punching a hole in Obito's stomach."

The Uzumaki gaped like a fish, she stood up, slamming her palms against the table with an infuriating expression. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" she shouted, making Kakashi wince in surprise. "Why didn't Minato do anything about that?!"

"He-he was too busy helping me…" the Hatake muttered guiltily. "Sorry…"

Kushina's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, I didn't know that…I'm sorry, it's not your fault."

The Hatake simply shrugged, continuing to eat the ramen in silence. But it didn't stay silent for long. Kushina spoke again, "So, anyways, did you hear the rumors about Kiri? They've finally elected a new Mizukage. He's actually a jinchūriki, believe it or not…"

Three weeks later…

"Is that the last of it?" Obito questioned Guruguru, who was literally dragging in a box of heavy materials.

"Yes," Shiro Zetsu anose red for the cursing mutated human as he stepped onto the porch, giving Guruguru a dead panning look at the latter disappeared down the hallway. "Everything's set up! We have our own personal electricity and water source. Neat, right?! Haha!"

Obito rolled his eye. "Yes. Very. It's a wonder as to why I picked it."

The house they made via Wood Release was decently large, enough to support all four of them and even a few more. It was half built into a cliff made by Obito himself as cover. It connected to an underground cave, which would act as a bunker should anything bad happen. The entrance was sealed, and only two of the four occupants could open that seal. Guruguru and Zetsu could just sink in.

The house itself was only one story, but it had a kitchen, a dining room, a guest room that could be called a wreck room, Naruto's room and Obito's own room next to it. And while Naruto's room still had yet to be occupied—because the kid wasn't ready to sleep on his own, if the crying-in-the-middle-of-the-night dealio didn't say anything—it still had stuff in. It was also locked, thanks to Zetsu…borrowing…some door knobs from citizens' homes.

They didn't have enough money yet. They had used it all up paying for the hospital bill.

Obito sighed tiredly, sitting on the front porch with little Naruto sitting wobbly on his lap. He stared out at the small clearing, about to speak, when Guruguru suddenly started shouting curses. The Uchiha grumbled something under his breath, making the seven week old newborn in his arms grin and coo randomly. "What now…?"

"Random person just randomly showed up!" Guruguru exclaimed from the apparent dining room. "Stupid Hiraishin…and stupid heavy box! Dear god, what the hell is in this thing?!"

"Do you ever stop complaining?" Shiro snapped, stomping into the house. He blinked dumbly before grinning as he entered the dining room. "Why hello there, Tomato-chan, Potato-chan! And look. It's Baka Kakashi. Yo! Welcome to the house of idiots!"

Obito twitched. "Potato-chan" was Shiro Zetsu's new nickname for Minato, while "Tomato-chan" was Kushina's. He internally sighed, feeling a cool breeze brush through his hair for many long lasting moments. Probably in shock or something, he mused internally.

"Uh…" Kakashi's voice was the first to break the silence. "…Wh-who're you?"

"Names Shiro Zetsu," he introduced. "Tomato-chan, this is Guruguru. Guruguru, meet Tomato-chan! You know of her, right?"

"Wow, I've never seen a jinchūriki up close before!" the idiot said in awe. "Hey, Obito, you never told me how pretty she was!"

The Uchiha didn't show any physical acknowledgement of the moron talking to him. "Hn."

He heard Kushina gasp. "Where is he dattebane?!"

Guruguru snickered. "On the porch." "Have fun" was left hanging in the air, though it could still be heard.

Feet slammed against the wooden floors, making Obito stand up with his arm wrapped around Naruto's stomach and turn around. He only saw flaming red before he felt his being get slammed into by Kushina. He blinked in surprise, briefly hesitating because the last time he was got hugged was when Kuro Zetsu came up from behind and nearly stabbed him in the gut during a long training session. But he returned the hug anyway.

And for the first time in many years, he felt truly warm and happy on the inside.

"Ijigen Jutsu": "Different Dimension Technique"; "Art of a Different Dimension"

"Shinjitsu no Taki": "Waterfalls of Truth" or "Waterfall of Truth"

"Obito-ichijikai": "Initial Obito"

"Obito-nijiteki": "Secondary Obito"

Aw, so sweet ;-; TT^TT

Preview:

Slowly, but surely, he was dozing off, when practically out of the blue, Obito shot up, screaming "Fuck off!" with a crazed look; he was drenched in sweat, and he was panting from the panic of his dream.

Kakashi winced in surprise, leaning on his elbow to elevate himself and look up at the Uchiha. Obito hadn't noticed, and if he did, he showed no acknowledgement. He just wheezed and rubbed his only available eye, lying back down.

Soon after that, everything was quiet; all that could be heard was the tweeting of the early birds as the winter sun finally decided to rise over the horizon at eight in the morning.

Peace! :3