Past

Chapter Ten: An Orchestrated Scheme

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

The sound of kunai hitting the wooden targets had always served to have a calming effect on Itachi. It helped to diminish a bit of his anger, even if just by a little bit.

Half of Sora Uchiha's squad didn't return.

Just the mere thought of deliberately leaving behind injured comrades to die made Itachi's blood boil. He hated that the only thing he could do was sit there quietly as Sora gave his mission report. Hated that even if his father wanted to, there was nothing that his father could have done against Sora because Sora was a highly valued and revered shinobi.

Itachi hated politics.

When Itachi felt a flare of chakra heading in his direction, he figured it was probably Shisui, having been sent by his father to track him down. Upon closer inspection, Itachi tensed up when he realized that chakra didn't belong to Shisui. It felt familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. Itachi had felt this chakra before, but the chakra mix was entirely different from what he was used to.

Definitely not belonging to that of an Uchiha.

Itachi was ready when the person emerged from the shadows of the trees. Pretending to be in the middle of kunai practice, Itachi threw five towards its intended target with a sixth veering towards the source of the chakra.

The sound of metal emitted through the air. Itachi spun around, Sharingan already activated to face the intruder. The red faded from his eyes when recognition dawned on him. Although a comrade, Itachi still didn't take it lightly that an outsider was intruding on his personal space.

"How did you find this place?"

Kakashi merely pointed at his nose. "I'm a tracker."

Itachi had no idea what the older boy was capable of. All he had heard were the rumors of his prowess, but never any of the specifics.

"What do you want?"

"Is your father planning on sending a retrieval squad?"

Suddenly, Itachi knew what this was about. "You were on Sora's squad. Who is missing?"

Kakashi seemed to hesitate for a moment before he answered. "Obito Uchiha. Among others."

Itachi couldn't seem to meet Kakashi's eyes. Obito...another one of the few clansmen that treated him for him, not as the clan heir. He had grown attached to his older cousin, but…

"I'm sorry," was all Itachi could offer. He expected indignation from the other boy, protests as to why he couldn't do anything in his position or anything of the sort, but what he hadn't expected was quiet acceptance.

"I see."

Quiet acceptance, but Itachi could see that Kakashi was planning something.

"What are you going to do?"

Kakashi shot him a wry look. "Probably nothing you would approve of."

Itachi wasn't sure he wanted to find out what that was supposed to mean. Logically, it was his duty to stop Kakashi, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to.

After all, some rules were made to be broken, right?

But could he really stand by and let Kakashi bear the brunt of the consequences if it so happened that he was caught when Itachi's heart yearned for him to do the exact same thing?

"I'll see what I can do on my end," was what Itachi settled for. Both of them knew there wasn't anything that Itachi could do, but nevertheless, Kakashi nodded.

Shisui came right as Kakashi turned to leave. The two of them exchanged glances, Kakashi's merely brushing over the other Uchiha while Shisui's confused gaze seemed to be fixated on Kakashi. Then Shisui met Itachi's eyes, seemingly looking for answers.

Itachi motioned that he would explain later.

"There's news of an injured Uchiha in Chusei."

That had caught Kakashi's attention. "What? Do you know the person's name?"

If Shisui was taken aback by Kakashi's sudden interjection, then he didn't show it. "I don't know all the details. All I know is that Itachi's presence is wanted at the meeting, perhaps the name will be known then."

"I will let you know," Itachi was addressing Kakashi. "I will send a crow to you. You know of my summon?"

Kakashi nodded.

The woman was unfamiliar, but the moment that Itachi heard that she had come from Chusei, he knew exactly what she was an informant for.

"The girl brought back a boy named Tobi," the woman told them. "Tobi said he was a civilian that happened to get caught in the crossfire, but he looks exactly like an Uchiha, so I figured that he was one of yours."

Tobi. Nobody in the clan bore that name, but anyone with half a brain wouldn't give out their real name to strangers. The name Tobi had enough of a resemblance to Obito...so there was a possibility that it could be Obito.

Itachi hoped it was Obito.

"And the girl?" Fugaku inquired.

"She…" The woman paused for a second, seemingly gathering her thoughts. "She is very talented."

"And?" Fugaku prompted. There was a warning tone in his voice. The woman gulped.

"She has become a very competent medic. Tobi's injuries weren't difficult for her to heal and she's able to cure the illnesses in the village with relative ease."

"It seems like she's ready to be reintegrated into the Uchiha forces then." Fugaku was directing the statement towards Itachi and Shisui, but it was the woman who spoke up.

"No Uchiha sama!" she protested. "Perhaps a bit longer would do her-"

A simple glare had shut the woman up.

"If the girl is not there when we arrive at Chusei, see to it I will carry out my threat."

The woman nodded, desperately hiding the tears that slipped down her cheeks. She turned to leave, her head hung low as the weight of Fugaku's threat bore on her.

"We will depart tomorrow morning. Both of you will be coming along."

Neither of them questioned Fugaku's orders.

They saved her from Daisuke's clutches. They brought her back from the brink of death. They allowed her to escape. They allowed her to flourish and develop her medical ninjutsu under the pretense of freedom. They planted an informant to keep track of her progress. They let her have a taste of freedom.

And now? They were going to tear all of that away from her.

Whether she wanted to or not, she would always work for the Uchiha side. A valuable asset, his father had called her.

The day that Itachi had saved her from the dungeons, he had sealed her fate. And now he wondered if it would have been better off to have let her die that day.

After all, her entire world was simply a complex, fabricated web of lies.

Mikia had randomly disappeared for an entire day on the fourth day of Obito's recovery, only to return when night fell. It was strange enough that Mikia had returned empty handed, but it was even stranger that Mikia dodged all of her questions. What made Rin more suspicious was that Mikia refused to meet her eyes, even when Rin asked her simple questions, like if she would be around to watch the shop tomorrow.

Mikia muttered some excuses under her breath, retreating to the second floor before Rin could ask anymore. Rin wanted to chalk up her strange behavior to her having a bad day, but in the two years that Rin had known the woman, her bad days never resulted in avoidance.

It was an unsettling feeling and Rin wondered what had happened to make her act this way. She wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

After closing the shop for the night, she went to find Tobi. Tobi sat still on the bed while Rin checked his wound, deeming that he was healing nicely.

"You should be able to leave by the end of the week," Rin told him while she rewrapped the bandages around his torso. When she pulled away, Rin was greeted with a sight of a forlorn expression on Tobi's face.

Rin poked him in the shoulder. "Aren't you excited to see your cousins again?"

Tobi let out a sigh. "I am, but I have enjoyed the peacefulness here. If I could, I would bring my cousins to live here."

Rin shot him a skeptic look. "Is your village not neutral?"

"We are allied with the Senju. A lot of our supplies are sold to them, so it's natural that we will be attacked if the enemy wants to cut off the Senju's line of supplies."

She let out a noncommittal hum. A few moments of silence stretched out between them before Rin spoke again.

"I suppose that it's wise to ally yourselves to one side to receive some sort of protection. Unlike us, we are caught in between and at the mercy of both sides."

"Even so," Rin continued. "I would want no part in the war. War ruins people."

"Ruin?" Tobi echoed.

"I'm a war orphan. In the last war, my village was caught in the crossfire. The Uchihas accused us of harboring Senju shinobis. When we claimed that we did no such thing, they still did not believe us and razed the village to the ground. We were a civilian village; the most that anyone knew was how to throw a kunai. Everyone died that day."

"But you…" Tobi trailed off. Did he really want to know about her past? He had a feeling that it would make him feel even guilter than he already was.

"The Uchihas took the children." At this part of the story, Rin's eyes were fixated on the window, with a glazed look in her eyes. "We became slaves for the Uchihas and very few of us survived under their cruel treatment. It was so inhumane, the way that they pitted us against each other like we were animals. There was this girl...I almost let her die because I wanted to look out for myself."

"But you didn't."

Rin nodded. "I couldn't help it. I couldn't just watch her bleed out on the floor, knowing that I could have done something about it. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself, if I did, so I helped her."

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know. Still with the Uchihas, I suppose. Perhaps death would be a better alternative than what she would go through now."

Tobi didn't respond simply because he didn't know what to say.

"Sorry for unloading all of this onto you," Rin said after noticing Tobi's discomfort.

Tobi forced himself to smile. "It's alright. I'm sorry that you had to experience all of that."

"Enough of the depressing stuff. At least I'm free now, aren't I?"

Rin smiled so brightly at him, with so much hope shimmering in her brown eyes that Tobi immediately felt a wave of guilt wash over him. After having heard his name called twice, Tobi finally snapped out of it to give a delayed nod in agreement.

Tobi swallowed his guilt. "At least you're happy here."

While Rin spoke, telling him stories of various villagers, Tobi wasn't really listening. Instead, his mind was swirling with all sorts of thoughts, but it all came down to whether or not he would tell her the truth.

Rin would hate him for lying to her, but at least she would be able to run before the Uchihas came for her.

But at what cost?

All of the villagers that she spoke so fondly of...Mikia and Aiko...everyone...would die when the Uchihas found out that she wasn't here.

Rin nudged him in the shoulder, jolting him out of his thoughts. "Ne, what are you thinking about?"

Tobi turned to look at her, his mouth opening and closing as he decided whether or not he wanted to ask her.

"If one day," Tobi began slowly, gauging Rin's expression as he spoke. "You have to sacrifice yourself for the safety of the rest of the village, would you?"

There wasn't a second of hesitation. "Of course. One life in exchange for the safety of the entire village is a small price to pay. Why do you ask?"

"Ah no particular reason. I was just thinking about the impending war…"

He made up his mind.

There was a crowd. Shifting the basket of groceries to her right hand, Rin maneuvered through the crowd, taking advantage of her smaller stature. The closer that she got to the front of the crowd, the louder the whispers were.

"It's the Uchihas."

Rin froze. Her mind went into overdrive, trying to process what she had just heard. Despite the chatter of the crowd from all sides, Rin could clearly hear her heart pounding against her ribcage. Unconsciously, her hand moved to wrap itself around the handle of the basket, gripping so tightly that her fingers had turned red. Craning her head stiffly, Rin turned to face the man who had spoken.

"Excuse me, what's going on here?"

The man hardly spared her a glance, more occupied with trying to get a glimpse of the scene.

"The Uchihas are here," the man informed her, while he kept craning his head to see over the people in front of him. Clucking his tongue in annoyance, the man moved closer to Rin, while she stepped to the side to allow him to stand directly behind two shorter women.

His eyes remained fixated on the scene for two minutes before he finally turned to look at her. Recognition flickered in his eyes.

"They're standing in front of Mikia's shop."

Rin's eyes widened. "How many of them are there? Is Mikia and Aiko alright? Do they have any weapons? What are they doing right now?"

At some point during the questioning, Rin had latched onto the man's arm, shaking it as she spoke. The man looked pointedly down at his arm. Rin quickly released his arm, a sheepish expression on her face.

"I can only answer one question at a time," the man said, turning his head back to look at the scene. "There's five of them; two of them are kids. I don't see Mikia or Aiko outside. As of now, they are just standing outside of the shop."

"Standing outside of the shop?" Rin echoed. "Why?"

The man shrugged. "I don't know. Perhaps they are looking for you? Maybe they need your medical services."

"Me? Their village has dozens more competent medical personnel than me. They wouldn't need to come all the way out here to get treated."

"Hey, hey." The man held his hands up, palms facing in her direction. "I don't know anything. You should go see what they want."

Nodding at the man, Rin set off, worming her way through the crowd. She headed towards the edge, reaching the building on the other side of the street. Pressing her back against the wall, she made her way through to the front of the crowd.

The red and white Uchiha symbol was stitched proudly on the back of their shirts. The same symbol that had repeatedly shown up in her nightmares even after she had gotten away for two years.

Why were they here? Did they come to take her back?

Every instinct in her body was yelling at her to turn away and run, but a small part of her was afraid for Mikia and Aiko's safety. Would they hurt them if Rin didn't show up? And how far could she run before the Uchihas found her again?

Rin took a large breath of air, willing herself to calm down. She needed to remain calm so that she could make a rational decision…

In a blink of an eye, the youngest Uchiha spun around on his heels, throwing a kunai in her direction. Alarmed, Rin moved to the side, shoving two people aside as the kunai brushed right past her ear before the tip made contact with the wall of the building behind her, bouncing harmlessly to the ground.

The crowd fell silent. All eyes swung towards her. Rin's eyes flickered to the kunai on the ground. She quickly bent down, swiping the kunai off of the ground, clutching it tightly in her hand.

The man with brown hair, Fugaku Uchiha if her memory was correct, lazily raised both hands. Slowly, he began to clap, the interval between each longer than deemed appropriate for a normal applause.

"Don't think you'll be able to do anything with a kunai. I can kill you before you can even reach us. I trust that you remember who I am?"

"Fugaku Uchiha," Rin whispered. She transferred the kunai to her right hand, shifting her trembling left hand behind her back, out of sight. The move didn't go unnoticed by Fugaku.

"What do you want?" Rin hated the shakiness in her voice, but she couldn't muster a single ounce of courage in herself.

"Why don't I let you see yourself?" Fugaku waved his hand in the air. The two Uchiha adults stepped away from the entrance of Mikia's shop. Rin's eyes widened as Tobi stepped out of the shop. Mikia and Aiko followed closely behind him, remaining at the entrance.

His family is allied with the Senjus. The Uchihas found out that I saved him and want to kill both of us!

Rin ran to Tobi's side, almost tripping over her feet twice. The Uchihas surprisingly had moved out of the way to let her reach Tobi. Once she was by his side, Rin grabbed onto Tobi's arm, pushing him to turn around so she could see the wounds on his body.

There were none. Rin felt a wave of relief wash over her.

"You're not hurt."

Tobi shook his head. Rin tore her eyes off of Tobi, turning back to face Fugaku once more.

"Tobi is just a traveling merchant. He's not affiliated with the Senjus in any way, I promise."

The younger Uchihas moved to flank Fugaku on both sides. The younger boy seemed to be vaguely familiar, but Rin didn't have time to get a good look at him before Fugaku spoke again.

"Tobi, huh? Is that what you're calling yourself these days?"

Rin waited for Tobi to respond, but he remained oddly silent. Jerking her head over her shoulder, Rin took in the guilty look on Tobi's face. The slump of his shoulders, the anxious wringing of his hands, the way that he averted her eyes when her eyes pleaded for him to say something. To say that Fugaku had it all wrong.

That denial never came.

"What?" Her voice cracked.

Fugaku shrugged. "Did he not tell you? His real name is Obito Uchiha."

A chill went down her spine. Obito Uchiha? Uchiha?

Uchiha?

How could he have looked her in the eye and told her that he wasn't when she asked? How could he have made up all of these lies about his background to get her to trust him?

Rin should have left him to die.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as her brain finally processed everything. Her grip on the kunai increased so much that the metal handle was digging painfully into her palm.

The sadness ebbed away and the anger took over.

Rin tossed the basket onto the ground, the fruits and vegetables tumbling out onto the dirt road. She spun around on her heels, gripping the front of Tobi's shirt before pulling him closer to her so that they were looking at each other eye to eye.

Tobi hardly resisted.

"Tell me that Fugaku is lying."

Tobi remained silent.

"Tell me that he's lying!" In a fit of anger, she released the front of his shirt, shoving him back with all of her strength. Tobi stumbled back a few steps, but in her heart she knew that he had let her.

Tobi - no, Obito - was a shinobi. Her civilian strength wasn't anything that he couldn't deal with.

"You lied to me about your true identity because you knew I despised the Uchihas. What's your goal? To come and take me back?"

Rin let out a pitiful laugh. "All of that work for me? Let me tell you, I am of no value to the Uchihas; otherwise, you wouldn't have let me escape so easily, am I right?"

"That's where you are wrong," Fugaku interjected. He took two steps forward; Rin took two steps back. "When we first found you, you showed exceptional talent for medical ninjutsu. To have learned with no guidance is no easy feat. We saw your potential two years ago. And of course, you haven't let me down, did you? Your talent has progressed tremendously, isn't that right Mikia?"

Rin's gaze swung to Mikia. Mikia's arm tightened around her daughter's shoulders as she gave a single nod.

Her heart sank. A stinging pain resonated in her chest. Thousands of needles pricked at her entire being. The tears came down even harder.

"Why? Why!" Rin couldn't even look Mikia in the eye. Each time that she did, the feeling of betrayal increased tenfold.

"I'm sorry Rin. I didn't have a choice."

Aiko tugged on her mother's arm, demanding an explanation but Mikia looked everywhere but at her daughter. Aiko screamed out Rin's name. A sharp glare from Fugaku and Mikia clamped a hand over her Aiko's mouth, muffling her screams.

"I'd rather die before I work for you," Rin stated. "Did you really expect a slave to want to work for you willingly?"

"You forget who saved you from the dungeons."

It finally clicked for her. Her eyes swung to the younger boy. The same boy that she recalled to be the one who had saved her from the dungeons.

He saved her and ruined her all at the same time.

"If my sole purpose was to be manipulated by you and forced to work for you, then I would have rather died in the dungeons. You should have left me to die."

Rin moved, angling herself behind Obito. The sharp end of the kunai was pressed tightly against Obito, enough to draw a trickle of blood. Obito gulped.

"You should be thankful that I allowed you two years of freedom to allow your talents to flourish."

"Should I also be thankful that there was a spy to monitor my every move? Should I also be thankful that the Uchihas attacked my hometown and razed it to the ground? Should I also be thankful that Daisuke Uchiha took all the children and forced us to become his personal slaves? Oh maybe I should be thankful that Daisuke gave me a roof over my head, right? Should I also be thankful that your clan haunts me in my dreams every single night?"

Fugaku nodded. Obito grabbed her arm, twisting her arm, making her loosen her grip on the kunai.

Obito looked at her in the eye. "I'm sorry."

His black eyes turned red, the tomoes of his Sharingan spinning. Rin's eyes glazed over as the genjutsu took hold. His hands shot out, gripping her shoulders to steady her as she swayed slightly on her feet.

"Shisui."

Obito retreated as Shisui and Itachi approached him. Shisui shot him a reassuring look before his eyes seeped red, forming a shuriken shaped pattern that Obito had only seen once before.

"Kotoamatsukami. Command her to be loyal to the Uchihas," Fugaku ordered. "I will block her memories after you finish."

Shisui nodded.

"You aren't too injured from the battle, are you?"

Obito shook his head. "Rin already healed all of my wounds."

Fugaku hummed in approval. "That's good. It's not a waste to come get the girl then."

"But why? Don't we already have enough medics? Why do we need her specifically?"

Fugaku's eyes hardened. "In the last war, it's obvious that the Senju's medics are more skilled than ours. We lost many comrades in the last war from poison alone. We have enough medics, but they are only average. We will need someone exceptional to level out the playing field in the next war."

"The next war?" Obito echoed.

"We will never truly be at peace as long as the Senjus are alive."

A/N: Hi again!

If you were in Obito's position, would you have told her? What about during the 8ish years that Rin was under the genjutsu? If you were Rin (in the present timeline), would you forgive Obito and Mikia? Curious to know your thoughts because it definitely took me a while to decide what I wanted the final outcome to be because it was so difficult...everyone had their own reasons. :/

Guest: Thank you! Every time I see a review, it makes my day too haha.

The Quincy: You're right. People in love are crazy, but to be fair, this time Obito isn't 100% the bad guy. It's also time for a not evil Obito in a story lol. And he just met her for the first time, so not in love with her yet. :)

Guest: I'm glad! I never written anything related to the war genre, but I think it's great because there's so much potential. Glad to hear that there's the right balance between plot and character development, was worried that it was veering towards characters more so there's so much focus on their interactions and inner turmoil. Yeah Obito did know the whole time... :/

Thanks for the feedback and for reading! Until next time!

-MM