.
.
"I'm so tired, Rin." His voice was soft. He hunched over. "I don't know if I'll be able to bring you back."
In the darkness, Obito was sitting at the edge of the bed, gritting his teeth and pressing a fist to his eye. He had just realized that he had lost Rin's bandage, the absence of which sent him spiralling. His plans were off-track and his subordinates had betrayed him. She couldn't see his face, but she did see the trickle of wetness catching the moonlight, a frustrated tear dripping down the side of his chin.
Rin sat down next to him. He couldn't see her and he couldn't consciously sense her presence, but she knew if she pressed her hand against his back, what little chakra she could muster would soothe him. She leaned against his body and she felt his muscles relax. Rubbing the tips of her fingers against his nape, she waited for him to calm himself, to wipe his eyes and stop crying.
His actions used to horrify her, but strangely she had gotten used to it. They were shinobi, trained killers who went on missions for their village. Obito believed he would remake the world, that the people he killed could be brought back with the Moon's Eye. Rin had no choice but to believe in him, too.
Something blurry seemed to solidify and gain shape from the wall.
"Obito. It seems you've lost control." Black Zetsu snaked out as Obito straightened. Rin could see what the Black Zetsu could see: Obito's back, which slowly straightened. His head lifting and him projecting an almost eerie calm.
"It doesn't matter." He took on Madara's voice. It was a coping mechanism, a way to divorce himself from the things going around him. "I have already taken care of Konan. Nagato is dead. I will just retrieve the eyes myself."
"Nagato was supposed to use his eyes to revive Madara, and yet you've failed him."
"Madara is dead," Obito said. He placed his mask back on. He turned. "We can achieve the Moon's Eye Plan without him."
Black Zetsu started to melt. "Very well," Black Zetsu said, and he disappeared into the wall. "We will be watching."
Obito laughed, bitterly. "Then watch," Obito said.
The room was silent. Rin stood at the corner and waited while Obito collected himself.
"Fuck," Obito said, in his normal voice. He sniffed then stood, rubbing his arm.
xXx
.
She remembers things in fragments: long, dark hallways, Obito's footsteps as he goes further and further into the shadows. Tapered fingers touching the curved surface of an orange mask.
She screamed at him when he attacked their Sensei. "Obito! Stop this! What are you doing?!" But from behind the mask he was acting as Madara. She watched in horror as he hefted Kushina's body upwards, chaining her arms and getting ready to rip the bijou out from her.
Horror-struck, she followed him.
The slim blade of a sword drove through another Uchiha's chest, Obito driving the katana forward. Behind him, Itachi was making quick use of his Amaterasu, while Obito used his Kumai to rip, tear, snap the others like paper dolls. It was like the day she died all over again, and Rin's eyes were wide as she followed them, blood spattering on her face with each fresh kill.
She hovered over his shoulder as he stood alone at the edge of a rocky cliff face, the entire shinobi army cowering in fear over him. He dressed as Madara dressed, held the battle fan firmly in his hand.
Some nights, she tried to talk to him. Sometimes, if he was on the edge of sleep, he could hear her calling to him. "Obito," she'd say, and she'd kneel in the darkness by the bed beside him. And in the nonsense patois of half-sleep, he would murmur her name.
xXx
.
"Rin-chan, I have these extra clothes here, I think they might fit but they might be a little tight in the bust." Hashi walks into the bedroom, a pile of clothes draped over her arm.
Rin looks at herself in the mirror. Her reflection doesn't surprise her so much - she supposes her concept of self had aged along with Obito - but the flesh and bone of an actual body is jarring to her. She used to be like air, and now she has heft and takes up physical space. Hashi steps around behind her.
"My hair is long," Rin says. She touches the brown locks, which fall below her shoulders. "Can we cut it?"
"Of course, Rin-chan! Want me to cut it for you?"
"If you don't mind." Rin frowns at herself in the mirror.
Her memories are still jumbled. She remembers Obito joining her, and for a brief moment, she was happy. They could finally ascend to a higher plane of existence, but suddenly his soul was ripped away from her. "I, uh, resurrected him," Hashi explained. She rubbed the back of her neck. "It was kind of a happy accident."
Now Rin pulls on her shirt, tugging it down while Hashi steps around her with a kunai. "Okay, Rin-chan! Let's cut your hair."
"Moron. Use scissors," Madara says. Hashi furrows her brow.
"What are 'scissors'?"
Madara holds up a pair of child safety scissors, the kind his daughter used in school.
"So you've been watching over him all this time?" Hashi's voice floats as she snips Rin's hair. Snip snip snip. Rin nods.
"I died. I remember seeing a flash of white, but Obito was crying. And in the confusion I wanted to make sure he was alright."
Snip. "Was he?" Hashi snips quickly. She pauses as Rin shakes her head.
"He was crying." Rin frowns as she remembers it: Obito covered in blood and clutching her body, the plant-like white vines jutting out through the darkness like trees. "He cries easily when he's upset. Kakashi used to make fun of him for that." On her lap, her hands close into fists. "The only way he could keep going was to pretend he was Madara and that he had no weakness." Rin pauses. She looks at her reflection in the mirror. "He suffered all these years with no one to comfort him."
"You really love him, huh Rin-chan?"
Rin blushes. "Oh...well..."
Hashi grins. "I'll bet he'll be really happy to see you!"
"Mm." Rin smiles, looking down and blushing. Hashi laughs, shaking Rin's shoulder.