When Minato took them back to the village without the last member of their team, it was a tense moment for everyone.
Kakashi seemed almost too eager to leave Obito behind so they would make it back by the scheduled time.
Rin was clearly reluctant to leave, and moved slowly when it was time to pack up and move on.
Minato was torn between his duty as a sensei and as a team leader, and hid one of his markers high in a tree before they left. He silently decided to take the other two home as quickly as possible and return alone at his next opportunity.
Uchiha Obito was declared missing in action a few days after he failed to meet up with his team during the mission near the border of the Lightning Country.
Days became weeks, and his name was called aloud at the periodic service with the others who had died or went missing in the line of duty during that time. But like all those whose statuses were unclear, Obito didn't get his name engraved on the memorial stone.
He truly did disappear without a trace.
The war was still going on, of course, so his team continued on their missions without knowing if he was alive or dead. They didn't talk about it much. It was a sticky topic between Kakashi and Rin especially.
The decision to leave without finding Obito didn't sit as well on Kakashi's consciousness as he expected, but he didn't say so out loud.
Rin inwardly berated herself for not insisting that they stay and look longer, but again, she kept that to herself.
Still, every time they went on a mission, they kept watch for any sign that might lead to where Obito had gone. Whether it was a casual inquiry by Minato to a jounin who had been through that area recently, or Rin and Kakashi discreetly looking around every time they went somewhere new, relevant or not.
All of them felt the silent, persistent weight of Obito's absence. They were in limbo, not knowing whether to grieve or hope.
How long was this awful uncertainty supposed to last?
Obito heard the sound of running water, and it immediately called to attention how parched his mouth and throat were. He pried his eyes open and looked around without moving his head.
He was laying on a futon inside a small, plain room, with a sliding door on his left and an opening to his right that looked like a kitchen area.
He didn't recognize this place at all.
Obito blinked when he saw movement from the kitchen. An old woman came from behind the partition and paused when she saw he was awake.
His memory came back quickly. He'd been on the battlefield just a second ago, with Naruto and the Juubi—and Kakashi was grown up, and his sensei was...
"Wh-who are you? Where is this?" Obito sat up and crawled backward as the woman came into the room. The pain that shot through his body when he moved made him cry aloud.
"Now, lay still and calm yourself. My my, I am surprised you managed to finally wake up." She knelt down beside his bed and put one hand on his head, and another one over his heart. Obito saw and felt the medical chakra given off by her hands.
"Who are you, obaachan?" he asked again after a few seconds.
She sat back and put her hands in her lap. "My name is Fumi. We are in a little country village in the Lightning Country. You were discovered floating down a river by some shinobi from Kumogakure. They thought you must be from the Uchiha clan, judging by your clothing, so they brought you back to Kumo to make use of you. Fortunately for you, you never woke up, and it was discovered after some investigation that you are just a little Chuunin without the Sharingan. They sent you here hoping I could bring you back to consciousness. They intend to do whatever necessary activate your Sharingan and take it after you wake up."
Then, he was back in in his own time? Obito scooted back again and tried to stand and run, but there was another sharp pain below his ribs, and it was almost enough to put him under again. Stooped over, his hand went to his side and felt the bandages that were wrapped around.
"What..."
Fumi walked around him and gently took hold of his arms, moving him back to the floor. "Please sit down. It's almost completely healed, and you don't want to make it worse, do you?"
"What happened to me?" Obito leaned back reluctantly, grimacing.
"Burns. Those charming people at Torture and Interrogation tried to wake you with a hot iron. Repeatedly."
"They did what?" Rage clouding his voice, Obito moved again, but the pain reminded him to stay still.
"It was good you did not wake. Things would have been much worse for you then."
"But obaachan, if you were put in charge of healing me, then..."
Fumi looked into his face, then stood up. "Don't worry, child. I have no intention of handing you over to them."
"Huh?"
Obito watched her go back into the kitchen, his confusion growing. If they were in the Lightning Country, then the people here were loyal to Kumogakure, right? They had no reason to want to help someone from Konoha.
After several minutes, Fumi came back holding a tray with a bowl of thin soup and some tea.
"My grandson was about your age when he went out to war." Her small hands took things off the tray one at a time. "Maa, well, I may be the best healer in the country, but I am no shinobi. I am tired of the wars taking children. Here. You can sit up, but be mindful of your wounds."
Obito did as she asked and sat up slowly, favoring his right side. The soup was completely bland, but he drank all of it down, feeling his stomach awaken after just a little bit.
"There. With an appetite like that, I'd say you have a great chance of recovering. You can have some more in a bit, but not too much at one time."
"Thank you." Obito put the bowl back down on the tray. "But if you don't turn me in, and they find out, won't you be in trouble?"
"Aren't you sweet." Fumi chuckled. "Don't you worry about me. You might have caused some fuss to begin with, but I think they've given up on you. I heard they considered making a ransom request when you wouldn't wake up, but they abandoned that idea after learning you were no one important in the Uchiha clan. Alerting Konoha would cause more trouble than it's worth. They probably expected you to die quietly here. Well, I did, too."
She laughed again, and Obito's face turned hot. Even if it ended up saving his life, it still pissed him off a little.
"If I have to, I can just tell them you ran off while my back was turned. They won't arrest a poor old woman for that."
"If you say so," Obito said doubtfully. "Then, when do you think I'll be able to go home? Wait—how long have I been here already?" It had been hard to mark the passage of time when he was trapped in Orochimaru's hideout all those days.
"Oh, you've been here for a week now. I'm not precisely sure when they found you, though. A couple of weeks, maybe? The only thing I'm sure of is they must have found you very soon after you fell unconscious. The state you were in, you could not have survived long without medical attention."
Obito frowned. Naruto had explained to him that they left their real bodies behind when they went to the future.
He was lucky to be alive, but this was bad. He had to get home as soon as possible! The older Kakashi said everything would start happening right after he became a jounin, but neglected to mention exactly when that would be.
"I need to get back before that happens," Obito mumbled.
"Hm?"
"Ah—um, it's nothing!" he said, waving his hands quickly. "But I need to go home soon. My team probably thinks I'm dead by now."
Even worse, was it possible his disappearance now might change something? He really hoped not. Things were going to be tough enough as it was. But as long as he could save Rin, it would all be okay.
"You're right. Well, I'd like to keep you until your burn heals completely, at least. Don't want it getting infected." Fumi stood heavily and picked up the tray to take it in the kitchen.
Obito lay back again. He tried to calculate how long it would take for him to reach home, but the Lightning Country was large. It could be anything from a few days, to over a week to travel back to Konoha. He made a mental note to ask Fumi where they were when she came back in the room.
It would probably save time in the long run if he waited until he was healed, but it was so hard to think about waiting around here when anything could be happening back home.
No. He would leave in a few days, max, regardless of what Fumi said. He couldn't risk the shinobi from Kumo coming back to check on him.
Obito grit his teeth as Fumi applied salve to the many burns tattooing his side. He hadn't been looking forward to the moment when his bandages would need to be changed, and now his apprehension was being completely justified.
"It was a lot worse than this before," Fumi said matter-of-factly when Obito let out a hiss in response to her touch. "Be grateful you were unconscious for all that."
"Yeah, no kidding—ugh!" Obito tensed up involuntarily at a particularly sore spot, right in the middle of the largest burn, but that part was quickly over. Fumi went on to cover it in bandages again, using smooth, expert motions. When that was done, she turned aside to put away her supplies.
But then the mortar in Fumi's hand slipped out of her grasp, making a loud crash when it cracked against the stone floor. She and Obito both cried out when they felt a cold, piercing energy slice through the air. Obito was able to recognize it for what it was—a killing intent of terrifying strength.
They saw a bright flash of movement, and Fumi was pushed against the wall with her hands wrenched behind her back. Obito jumped down from the counter, his mouth gaped open.
"M-Minato-sensei! Stop!"
Narrowed blue eyes turned toward him, before Minato's harsh expression changed to one of confused shock.
"Obito?"
Minato took a quick, sweeping look over the entire room, then let Fumi go.
"I suddenly felt one of my Hiraishin seals. I thought someone had taken one of my kunai to lure me out here."
"One of your seals—" Obito craned his neck around to look over behind his shoulder. He turned to show Minato the seal stamped there, plain as day.
"What?" Minato came over to look at it, confusion even more evident in his face now. "I don't remember doing that, but there's no mistaking it."
"Ah," Obito said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Anyway, this is Fumi-obaachan, she saved me. She was going to let me go soon to try to find my way back."
"Is that so?" Minato turned back to the woman, taking on the same sheepish pose as Obito. "I'm very sorry. Thank you for taking care of my student."
Fumi braced herself against the wall, staring at Minato. "You... you're..." she blinked, and then looked very serious. "The both of you should leave as soon as possible."
"Ne, are you sure you'll be alright?" Obito said, walking around Minato to talk to her. "If they find out you helped me escape..."
"It isn't Fumi-san's fault I found out where you were, and stormed into her house to get you back. Right?" Minato winked and took out one of his kunai and put it down on the counter. "I'll leave this for you. They will probably want to destroy it, but you can make it seem as though I attacked here."
"But isn't that bad, too?" Obito asked, raising his voice. "I mean, we're technically not fighting Kumo right now—"
"If they want to complain about it, they would have to admit to taking you in the first place. That would make them implicate themselves." Minato rested his hand on Obito's shoulder, above where the seal was. "Well then, we'll be leaving. Please forgive the rude intrusion."
They looked at him like they were looking at a ghost. In a way, that's exactly what he felt like. He knew now what it felt like to bend the shape of time and reality.
Knowing what waited for him in the very near future, Obito could feel that same sensation in the pit of his stomach as he limped toward his teammates, leaning on one crutch.
"O-Obito?"
"Obito!"
Rin ran toward him and threw her arms around him, laughing and crying at the same time. He winced in pain and she let go, apologizing immediately and covering her mouth in shock and horror as he lifted his shirt to show the mostly-healed burn. Kakashi stood a little further back, but his expression was different from usual. His coal eyes widened as he saw his teammate back from the dead, he looked a lot more like his older self.
Obito grinned and pretended that the tears in his eyes came from the pain. But really, he was still remembering the temporary sensation of Rin's arms around him, and remorse on older Kakashi's face.
From now on, he would re-write reality.
"I'm so glad you're awake, Naruto."
The phrase, so quietly and sincerely spoken, surprised him into silence for a few seconds. Mainly because it was Sakura speaking—this time's Sakura, not the older one who worried and fussed over him.
But that was not the only way she resembled her older self right now. It was also in her smile. It was the same strange, painful smile she wore when she visited him in the hospital in the future.
Was it already the time when she started doing that?
"Of course! You should know I won't go down that easily, Sakura-chan," Naruto said with a grin. "But thanks for visiting me when I was knocked out. I'm glad someone was there when I woke up the first time, since it let everybody know I could come back. Oh yeah, what happened that time, anyway?"
Sakura's smile got smaller, but it looked less forced. "You really startled me then. Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-sama thought you wouldn't be able to wake up until they caught whoever did that to you and made them reverse their jutsu. I guess there's a reason why they call you unpredictable!"
Naruto froze. Wait... did that mean... did she know already? He hadn't considered it much, but he was eventually going to have to deal with his friends learning about his jinchuuriki status again, right?
Kakashi had been standing back near the door, but he came forward now.
"Yes, thank goodness. We still don't know what caused it, but it is a relief you were able to break out of it on your own."
Naruto frowned. "But, Kakashi-sensei—"
"I heard all about it from Tsunade-sama," Kakashi interrupted cheerfully.
"Oh." Did that mean they weren't telling anyone?
Tsunade had said that they would be keeping it a secret for now, but Naruto didn't know that also meant Sakura and the rest of his former classmates.
It would be better to not have everyone fussing over him about the dangers of Akatsuki (he had plenty enough of that in the future). At the same time, it felt awkward to have the truth hidden like that.
Sakura pulled a chair over and sat down. "Naruto..."
"Yeah?"
Sakura looked down in her lap. Her hands gripped each other tightly, and her shoulders just barely shook.
"I... I-I'm sorry. I couldn't stop him... I should have done s-something differently, I should have... I knew something was wrong, but I didn't do anything about it. And by the time I finally tried to do something, it was too late."
"What? No, it wasn't your fault, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, putting as much emphasis into as he could. "I'm just glad you didn't get caught up with those Oto-nin! It would have happened either way, believe me. You know how that guy is when he wants to do something. You would've just gotten hurt, so..."
Sakura flinched visibly at his words, making Naruto flounder even more, trying to find the right thing to say.
"That's not what I meant! Listen, I know it looks pretty bad, but we can get him back. We can save him, Sakura-chan. So what we need to focus on right now is getting as strong as we can, as soon as we can. We'll take him back and kick Orochimaru's ass while we're at it."
"...How can you be so sure? How do you know?" Sakura said quietly.
"Because I—" Naruto stopped, mouth slightly open as he stared. How exactly was all that supposed to fit in with everything else? Was it really okay to let Sasuke end up the way he was in the future, caught between Orochimaru and the older Obito?
"Because I promise," he said firmly. Sakura looked up at him. "I promise."