Chapter Four: Rebirth Revelation

"I know that you're like me!" The words make me freeze, and there's a chill that races up and down my spine. I almost don't want to look at my beloved otouto. I don't want to look at the one who I've grown to care for and love and... The one who I want to protect.

I don't want to believe the words that are falling out of their mouth. The words that have been starting to drift through my own head over the course of our third(now forth) year of life. I don't want to hear them, I don't want to admit that they're true and believe them. Because he's supposed to be innocent. Obito's supposed to be untouched and pure. Everything that I'm not, and everything that I could protect.

I don't want to hear the words. I don't want to know that he's not, but they continue.

"You were reborn as well." It's so quiet and I spin around to face him. I can't stop myself. I want to scream at him, ask him to stop. To just let me keep pretending but I can't because he continues to speak. To tell me what I already know but don't want to actually face. "But unlike me you know already. You know this world. You know this place!" A smile stretches over his face, and I can see the mockery that it contains, especially as he stretches out an arm to gesture to the world around us.

To the world that we live in.

And that actually hurts a bit, but not enough to truly break through the sheer fear and uncertainty that I feel about this whole situation. I swallow and lick my lips a bit before asking.

"H-how?" How does he know? And I look around our shared room, and then out and up at the moon carefully not meeting Obito's eyes.

"It's not too hard. After all. I was reborn as well. From that per-spac-tive it's easy." It should have been so easy. I'm a shinobi, a shinobi who was a Nukenin. And I was trained by Uchiha Madara himself, and... "Also, you're hor-ri-ble at being a child."

"Yeah well..."

"Are you a boy?" I splutter having gotten cut off before I could really find the words to try and defend myself. I didn't think that my acting skills were that bad. In fact, I thought that they were pretty fantastic. After all, no one expected Obito to be behind the mask of Tobi, or the mask of Uchiha Madara. "Because I was a girl previously... Or at least I think so... I never quite felt like one. And now I don't quite feel like a boy." And that makes me stop and I finally look back at him.

Obito's hands are curled into the blankets covering him, and he has such a serious look on his face. He genuinely wants to know... and also, he's a girl?! I awkwardly clear my throat and flush a bit averting my eyes from her(is that even correct, this is so awkward).

"Y-yeah... I was a boy..."

"Then you're still a boy" I can't even respond to that as something in my head just seems to screech and slam into a wall. "If you believe that you are... I don't judge. I mean... I don't even know what I am..."

How can he not know...

I stare rather gobsmacked, because how can she(he, they?) not know? How is that possible, wouldn't you just be able to know what you are. Something curls through me as I was my toshishita kyoudai awkwardly shift in their blankets and then scratch a hand through their hair. I actually feel sorry for them, because at least I know that I'm a boy. Genitals and body problems or not.

"I mean... It's not like I care really." That explains so much... and nothing at all. It's so strange to consider it though. "Besides... Why does it even matter that you don't match?"

And there's my awkward toshishita kyoudai that I know and love. Although that's still weird, are they non-binary or something like that? I don't think that I've ever met a non-binary shinobi before. Or just a person like that. Sure I've met a few transgender people, and now I'm one but never a non-binary person.

That's interesting.

"Wait... So you're accepting that I'm a boy? And you're non-binary or something?"

Obito's reaction is not what I'm expecting. Everything about their expression darkens and they bare their teeth at me in response. Hands that twitch and fist the blankets as they glare at me and hiss their response.

"No! Never non-anything! It feels... It feels..." I gulp as they growl in frustration unable to find the words to properly explain. "Just no... Not non-binary."

"You..." I falter as their expression snaps back to me, eyes flickering with something. "You sounded rather scary there..." Obito blinks and their eyes soften, face and expression shifting to apologetic.

"Yeah well..." They shake their head and sit up before moving over from their futon to mine. "I always had some trouble with my temper" That made two of us then... maybe. Except that they didn't really lose it. Awkwardly they laugh and then we fall into silence between us.

How do I respond to this revelation?

Where will we even go from this point?

I notice Obito twitch and slowly they slide from their spot beside me and silently slink out of the door and down the hall. Probably to spend some time meditating on this revelation. On the confirmation really since we both already knew. We both knew, for different reasons and in different ways.

Neither of us likely really wanted to face that fact though.

I take a deep breath and stand up off the futon and look out the window and up at the moon again. And it's strange, because I know what the moon is.

The Jubi's shell. Kaguya's prison and yet. The moonlight is still comforting in it's own strange way. I close my eyes for a moment to just bask in it as it slides over my skin and my breathing evens out.

And when I open my eyes I step back and into the center of the room where I kneel. I clasp my hands together and wait. My kyoudai opens the door, in their hands is a glass of water. So fragile like this new found relation between us.

Easily broken, and then what will we do? What will we be?

"We're going to need to talk about this aren't we?" They speak carefully, maintaining a blank expression on their face as I nod. "So where do we begin? With our deaths..." Obito trails off and I grimace. Yeah it's best not to remember that mess. And which death would I even explain. My first one at thirteen or my more permanent one at the true end of my life.

The one that happened when I finally saw the light again after years of drowning in darkness.

Yeah that wouldn't end well either way. Admit to dying at thirteen and I'll probably get pity. Admit to the second and the response will be horror. Terror and fear and what if Obito rejects me? I shudder and speak against the idea.

"How's about we not."

"Yeah... Okay that was a bad idea." Obito actually flushes a bit and awkwardly rubs the back of their head with closed eyes. They shift the glass of water until it rests between their legs and seems to come to a decision. "Maybe just general details then... What our past lives were like... Enjoyed and didn't. Maybe a bit about where we lived." A sip of water and I frown... that's acceptable.

"That sounds a bit better. I was an Uchiha... Previously, so to be reborn as one again is... Well en-ter-as-ting." I frown and repeat the word several times under my breath. It still doesn't sound quite right by the time that I give up trying to pronounce it.

"It certainly is" Obito agrees with me and I frown. Does that mean they was also an Uchiha in their previous life. If that's the case... I feel a weird twist in my stomach. Unsettled and uncomfortable and oh, it's guilt. Guilt because if they were an Uchiha as well, then they probably died during the Uchiha Massacre.

And while I wasn't entirely behind that one, it was mostly Danzo's fault. I killed more than my fair share of our extended family. Of the Clan and those who lived in it at the time.

I spot the expression on Obito's face then. Horror and a realization and it only takes a small leap of logic to realize what they're freaking out about. Puberty... from the other side. I blanch and shudder at the thoughts. Trying to push them away because oh dear kami no, that's too fucking awkward.

"Um... My old world operated more with tech-nol-o-gy" Obito breaks the awkward silence with an even more awkward sentence. And there's a thrill of relief that rushes through me as they speak. They're not from our world, not from this world. I didn't kill them... or Itachi didn't kill them. "Everyone had laptops and ipads..."

I listen as they talk. Of younger siblings and a sky full of stars and potential. Of canine companions that they could love and care for. Of games that I've never heard of and ideas that I never even thought were possible. Of mechanical vehicles that roared along roads and transported civilians. Of a mother who loved so much, and a Nana to snuggle with.

And I see the point where they start to break. Overcome with their memories and the emotions stirred up by them.

They break.

Awkwardly I move to stand beside them and... I honestly don't know what to do. I reach out and rub their back unsure whether or not that's the proper response. I just don't know, because I lost contact with people. And never really had anyone to truly show me how.

The glass is tipped over, and I find my eyes following the spread of the water over the tatami mat.

We're both a mess in our own ways aren't we.

"No use... No use crying over spilt milk..." I hear Obito mutter as they uselessly rub at their eyes. That never works, it just makes more come. "I miss them... I miss my old life... I even miss the things that I never part-ici-pa-ted in. Like wearing dresses"

"Heh... At least you didn't die twice." What am I doing? Obito's head snaps up and I've already put my foot in my mouth so I might as well take it all the way. "I did mention that I was an Uchiha right? Well the first time I died as a hero... The second I was the villain to the whole world." Okay that's vague enough to work. I don't have to really explain anything there.

Good, don't let them lose the innocence that they still have.

Don't let them understand how dangerous this world truly is. Especially when it regards who they are and who they could be. I can still protect them. They stare at me for a long while, and as they keep staring I begin to get more nervous. Until they finally shrug.

"Fair enough. I'm not even sure if I really died after all."

"How can you not know if you died or not." I ask unable to keep the bewilderment out of my voice. After all it should be easy to tell whether you died or not... right?

"Because I was just getting ready for NaNoWriMo... The abruptly I was yanked out of my own body as it continued... And now I'm here." Obito frowns and rubs at their eyes one more time "so did I die?"

"I have no idea..." I admit and that sparks a round of laughter. Until they narrow their eyes at me, and I hold up a hand stopping the question before it can really be asked. "No. Who I was previously is not important. Because out existence nullifies that outcome." And it does, because we're different already. Our paths have to be different because we're not the same.

Kuro and Madara would both have to approach us differently to manipulate us. Since we're not naive children. Not like I was when I ended up in that cave the first time around.

Obito narrows their eyes at me, clearly annoyed and all I can do is flash a cheeky grin. I'm pleased with that dodge. Before they can reach for me or try again I'm on my feet and bounding out of the room.

"Tomoko-nii!"

I laugh.