Obito finally arrives at the battle field. Unnatural rain from the Mist shinobis' ninjutsu soaks the ground. The sky is dark and cold above Obito. He sees Kakashi and Rin standing just a few metres away. Obito stops in his tracks as horror seeps into every fibre of his being.
Obito cannot believe what he is seeing.
There is no way this is right!
Why would Kakashi stab Rin with his chidori?! It doesn't make sense. It's not right. Kakashi is an asshole, but even he's not that much of an asshole.
Obito clenches his fists and grits his teeth, rage building inside him like an inferno.
"Ka...ka..shi...sorry…" says Rin, her voice fading.
Kakashi doesn't move.
Obito feels, rather than hears, a scream growing in the bottom of his lungs. It burns the back of his throat on the way up.
Rin falls to the ground.
Kakashi's eyes roll back in his head and he too falls to the ground.
Obito's eyes burn. He feels the power awaken inside them.
Rinnegan in his left eye. Mangekyou sharingan in his right.
The scream bursts forth, tearing at Obito's vocal cords as it rips across the battlefield.
He feels the power of the rinnegan course through him, draining his energy. Subconsciously, Obito feeds the rinnegan Swirly Zetsu's energy instead.
"Who is he?" Obit hears the Mist shinobi saying. "When did he get here?"
Obito's throat wrenching scream descends into a hoarse growl.
He feels the flesh Madara grafted into his body pulsing. Obito raises his prosthetic hand and branches burst out of the Mist shinobi closest to him. The other shinobi start to back away nervously. One of them turns and runs. Obito darts forward, overtaking the fleeing ninja in less than a second. Obito stands in front of the shinobi and glares at him until the ninja turns and runs in the other direction. Obito kicks him to the ground and beats him to death. The other Mist ninjas watch in terror, too afraid to run and too afraid to attack.
Finally Obito turns his head to look at them. His enemies take a collective step backwards. With an angry growl, Obito unleashes the full power of his implants. A tangle of branches erupts from Obito's body and snakes its way towards the enemy.
Using the power of the Wood Style, Obito slaughters the Mist Shinobi so brutally the sky rains blood. And when all the Mist shinobi are dead, Obito walks through the pools of bloody water and the tangled mess of branches to the very centre of the battle field. Unconsciously, Obito kept clear of that area in his wild rampage. That is where he left Kakashi and Rin, lying in a pool of blood mixed with water. Kakashi lies between Obito and Rin, so Obito walks right through him. Somehow, throughout the entire battle, every attack from the Mist shinobi simply passed through Obito's body. Now, the same happens with Kakashi. Even if Obito had stepped on Kakashi, he would not have cared.
Kakashi is soaked with Rin's blood.
Finally Obito reaches Rin and kneels down beside her.
He freezes in shock.
The hole in her chest is gone. Her shirt is torn where the hole should be, and the surrounding area is soaked in blood, but where the wound should be is clean, healthy skin without a single mark. Rin's chest rises and falls as she breathes. Her eyes are closed, and there is a peaceful expression on her face. Obito takes off his cloak and wraps it around Rin to preserve her modesty. Then he lifts her up in his arms and surveys the scene around him.
"Swirly, what happened?" he asks. "How is Rin alive?" Swirly does not respond. "Swirly?"
And that is when Obito realizes that Swirly is dead. When did Swirly die?
"Swirly…?" Obito lets Swirly's body detach from his own. Obito stares down at Swirly, trying to figure out how he died.
"Over here!" Obito hears a voice shout. He looks up and sees a team of Leaf shinobi headed towards the battle are too far away to see Obito, unless one of them has byakugan or sharingan.
Obito knows he needs to leave before they arrive. He feels a twinge of fear at the thought of explaining what happened. Obito looks down at Rin, sleeping peacefully in his arms. "I can't leave you here," he mutters. "I don't know what happened, but I can't…"
"Hurry, there might be survivors!" One of the approaching shinobi calls.
Obito places a hand on Swirly's body. He knows that Swirly can transform its body into anything - Swirly showed him how it works during their training. Swirly's body shrinks down as Obito uses his own zetsu cells to transform Swirly's body into a replica of Rin's. He is about to leave when he realizes that he should probably replicate the injury Kakashi gave her. Obito adjusts the transformation so that there is a bloody hole in the middle of its chest. Then he stands with Rin in his arms. "Now no one will know what happened here," he says.
As Obito runs back to Madara's hideout, he hears the Leaf shinobi shouting. Now that he is calmer, Obito notices the cold. He is soaked from head to toe from the blood-rain, and now that Swirly's body is gone, and Rin is wrapped in the cloak, Obito is only dressed in a pair of tattered shorts. "I need to get some clothes," Obito mutters through chattering teeth.
Rin wakes up slowly. The first thing she becomes aware of is the sensation of moving at a breakneck pace. Then she notices that the warm cloak wrapped around her body is also damp and smells musty. Rin opens her eyes and sees bare skin. The young man carrying her so gently is not wearing a shirt. She realizes that he wrapped his own cloak around her. Rin wonders why, and then realizes that there is a giant hole in her shirt right over her chest.
The young man is shivering, and Rin realizes that he put her modesty over his own comfort. Who is he?
All she can see of the guy is a well-muscled chest and shoulders, and a finely-chiseled, but scarred, face. He is not looking at her, but rather at where he is going. Rin stares up at the young man, her mouth open slightly. She can almost see a halo of light behind his head. The scars do not take away from his appearance, they make him look more manly and tough. If Rin's arms were not trapped in the cloak, she would have touched his bare chest. So perfect. Rin blushes as she feels her underwear get suddenly wetter.
Dammit, now is not the time to be falling in love with a total stranger! The butterflies in her stomach and the...urge between her legs... beg to differ.
Rin closes her eyes and pretends to be unconscious again. Maybe if she doesn't look at him, the feelings will go away. It doesn't work. Rin is now hyper aware of the rippling muscles in the arms holding her and the power in every step…
Without meaning to, Rin whimpers.
She opens her eyes to see if he heard. He did. The man is staring down at her with a relieved smile on his face. One of his eyes is a spinning red and black pinwheel that reminds her of the sharingan. The other is purple with six black rings around the pupil. "What…?" Rin stammers out, still overwhelmed with desire.
"We'll talk when we get to Madara's hideout," says the young man. His voice sounds familiar. In fact, everything about him seems familiar.
"Okay," agrees Rin, trying to remember if she has ever met this guy before. She would remember if she'd ever met someone like this, surely? She lays her head on his strong shoulder and closes her eyes. During her rescue and escape, she did not have time to realize how worn out her body is. Or was…? Rin cannot feel any of her previous injuries or fatigue. But she can still feel the seal the Mist placed on her draining her chakra.
Rin suddenly remembers Kakashi. Her eyes snap open. "Where's…?"
"He's fine," snaps the young man, his face darkening. "Some Leaf ninjas arrived as we left."
Satisfied, Rin relaxes in the man's arms. Is it really right to think of him as a man? Rin wonders. On closer inspection, he looks her age.
Finally, they arrive at the entrance to an underground cave. The young man carries her inside and sets her down long enough to grab a cloak from a peg beside an assortment of weapons. Now that she can see him better, Rin is shocked to see that he is barefoot and dressed only in a pair of tattered shorts. He shivers as he pulls the cloak around himself.
Rin pulls herself to her feet. She slips her arms into the sleeves of her cloak and zips it up.
"Come on," says the young man, taking Rin's hand and leading her deeper into the cave. He takes her through a pile of rocks and into a large cavern. There is a bed in the centre of the cavern and a statue at the far end. An old man sits, fast asleep, in a chair beside the statue. "It looks like Madara is asleep," says the young man. "We have some time to talk before he wakes up." He leads Rin over to the bed and they sit down.
"Um…" Rin isn't really sure how to ask, since she is sure she has met this guy before.
"Ah, you probably have a lot of questions," says the young man, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Go ahead and ask."
Rin decides to just come right out and ask. "Who are are you?"
The young man's face falls. Tears fill his eyes. He sniffs back a sob and says, "You don't recognize me? We've been friends our whole lives, practically!"
Rin stares at the young man. It's such a drastic change from before, and yet, like everything else about him, even this seems familiar.
"I know you think I'm dead, but that old man over there saved me!" he says. "I'm OBITO!"
"EH!?" The fact that Obito is alive does not shock Rin nearly as much as the fact that Obito is the one she just spent the last few minutes having...Jiraiya level feelings about.