With my wide eyes
I've seen worlds that don't belong
My mouth is dry with words I cannot verbalize
Tell me why we live like this

Broken – II

"Bitch." Obito spat as he rubbed his sore cheek. Rin rested an ice pack against the offending area. "Ow!"

"Quit being a baby." Kakashi said, rolling his eyes. "This is your own fault anyway, so don't complain."

"Not my fault if that girl is crazy." Obito grumbled, folding his arms. "She just better hope she never gets near me again, or I'll pound her."

"You'd hit a girl?" Minato asked. He shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, shame on you Obito."

"She's hardly a girl, Minato-Sensei." Obito snapped, his dark eyes blazing. "You guys don't know her like I do. Trust me, if you did, you wouldn't be trying to stop me."

"What's so bad about her?" Rin asked, raising an eyebrow at Obito. "I mean, really, she didn't seem that terrible. It wasn't very nice of her to hit you, I'll admit that, but you were insulting her, so it wasn't like she didn't have a reason."

"No one in class likes her." Obito said, as if that explained everything. Rin and Kakashi exchanged looks. Minato shook his head.

"That doesn't mean you have to hate her too. Since when do you, of all people, go along with what other people like and don't like?"

He was, of course, referring to the goggles Obito always sported. Normally the boy didn't care what other people thought ― apparently, though, he had changed his mind.

"Look, there's something about her I just don't like, okay? She always knows what to say just to get under a person's skin. It's like she knows everybody's deepest secrets. Maybe you think I'm crazy, and that's fine, go ahead, I don't care. But I'm telling you, there's something not right about that girl."

Kakashi was surprised. It was the first time, in all the years the two boys had known each other, that Obito had made such good sense. It was interesting.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover, Obito-kun." Rin said as she pulled the ice pack away. Obito's cheek was swollen. Kakashi smirked.

"Imagine explaining to everyone at school that you were hit by a girl." He said, knowing this would aggravate Obito. "That oughtta be fun."

"Shut it Kakashi." Obito grumbled, rubbing his cheek. It was really quite painful. And now that Kakashi mentioned it…he really didn't want to explain to everyone why his face was puffed up like a fish.

"Pass it over here Hatake, over here!"

Obito narrowed his dark eyes as he watched Kakashi pass the soccer ball to his teammate. The goggle-wearing boy was already changed for his gym class. They were waiting for the other class to finish their game first. The boys were playing soccer. The girls were playing volleyball. Obito's eyes kept drifting over to Rin. She looked good in those shorts…

Obito shook his head quickly. Snap out of it Uchiha.

"So what happened to your cheek?" Obito scowled and looked over at the boy standing next to him. Sarutobi Asuma, another boy from the group home, and the son of the owner, was watching him with an air of great interest.

"Why the hell do you care?" Obito grumbled. He didn't want to explain what had happened outside of the restaurant. Asuma shrugged.

"I saw it yesterday and I never got around to asking. So, what happened?"

"Nothing. When are those idiots going to finish their game already?"

"Did Kakashi nail you?"

"He wishes." Obito snorted, knowing full well that if Kakashi ever did want to hit him, he could, and very easily.

"So then what?"

At that moment, Kakashi scored a goal, putting his team up a point. Game over. "About time." Obito said, standing up. He was eager to get away from Asuma.

"What happened to your cheek Uchiha?"

Obito's eye twitched. If one more person asked about his cheek…wait.

He looked over his shoulder. Anko was standing there, smirking, her hands rested on her hips. Obito glared at her.

"Go away."

"What?" She asked, trying to sound innocent. Obito wanted to hit her right then. "Can't a girl be curious?"

"Not you. Go away."

"All right, second class on the field!" The gym teacher called. Obito sighed with relief and darted away, glad to leave behind the purple-haired demon and Asuma behind.

Kakashi jogged off the field. He hated soccer. But everyone else loved it, and insisted on playing it every class. It was so annoying.

As he stepped off the field, he caught sight of a familiar head of purple hair. "Hey." He walked over to Anko, who was preparing to head towards the volleyball field. She looked up at him surprise.

"Hello." She said apprehensively, as if she was expecting him to start yelling. "You were at the restaurant yesterday with Uchiha, weren't you?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah. The name's Hatake Kakashi. On behalf of myself, Rin, Minato-Sensei and the rest of us, I'd like to apologize. Not all of us at Konoha are like Obito."

"That's the group home, right?" Anko asked. Kakashi nodded. "A lot of kids around here are from that place."

"Sad but true."

"Mitarashi, let's go!" The teacher yelled suddenly. Anko jumped and smiled sheepishly.

"I'd better get moving. I'll…talk to you later?" She asked hesitantly. Kakashi nodded.

"Yeah. Talk to you later."

She smiled and took off. Kakashi watched her, surprised. She didn't seem half as bad as Obito had made her sound. Kakashi shrugged. Obito had a way of telling tall-tales and making them sound real. He shouldn't have been so shocked.

If Kakashi had been paying more attention, he would have felt the two sets of eyes on her. One were those of Obito, and were currently like Kakashi as if he wanted to kill him. The second were the hurt-filled ones of Rin. Kakashi had never spoken to her like that.

Anko pulled her back-pack tightly over her shoulders as she started home. She was tired, she was ready for the day to be over.

She was hoping Orochimaru would still be at work when she got home.

Luck seemed to be on her side that day, because the house was mercifully empty when she opened the door. Anko was glad. She walked into the kitchen and found a list of things to do. She sighed as she dropped her back pack. So much for getting her homework done early.

"I think I'm going to take a leaf from Kakashi's book and wear a mask." Obito grumbled as he walked home with Rin and Kakashi. "It's been one day, and about twenty people asked me what happened to my face."

"You could just tell the truth." Rin suggested.

"Oh hell no. Tell everyone I got beat up by a girl?" Obito shuddered at the very thought. "I'd never live it down."

"Yeah, because you care so much about what other people think." Kakashi rolled his eyes.

"Well you obviously don't." Kakashi heard the note of disgust in Obito's voice.

"Now what's your problem?"

"I saw you talking to Mitarashi earlier." Obito glared at Kakashi, his dark eyes narrowed in anger. "Evenafter what I told you. Come on Kaka you baka, I thought you were smarter than that."

"I was just telling her that not everyone around Konoha is like you. I don't need you giving us a bad name." Obito scowled that. Did Kakashienjoy making him feel like crap? "Anyways, last time I checked it definitely wasn't against the law to talk to a person."

"Yeah, but her?"

"Obito-kun, you don't even know her, do you?" Rin asked mildly. "I mean…have you ever talked to her? Or are you just making a lot of assumptions based on your opinions?"

"Maybe…they're opinions." Obito admitted, shoving his hands into his pockets. Rin shook her head sadly.

"You know what Minato-Sensei says about doing things like that, Obito-kun." The auburn-haired girl said in a condescending tone. "Never judge a book-"

"By it's cover, I know." Obito sighed and rolled his shoulders in a tired way. "But really, Rin-san, it's not just me, it's-"

"Yeah, yeah, it's everyone." Rin sighed. "Obito-kun, that's not the point."

"Well what do you want from me, Rin-san?" Obito asked, sounding a little annoyed now. He wasn't sure how many more times, in how many mores ways, he was going to have to explain himself.

"She wants you to start acting more grown up." Kakashi said. Obito glared at the boy, his dark eyes narrowing.

"Shut up Kakashi. No one asked you."

"On your feet, Anko."

Anko tried to push herself up, and found that the small task was virtually impossible. Both her wrists were throbbing from being held tightly together, and she was fairly certain her left one was sprained. It hurt every time she put pressure on it.

A rough hand grabbed Anko by the back of her shirt and dragged her up, holding her a few inches off the ground. "I told you to stand." Orochimaru said in a dangerously low voice. Anko cringed and looked away from him. Not that it saved her. His fist connected with her back, knocking the wind out of her. While she coughed and sputtered, trying to breath, Orochimaru threw her to the ground again. On instinct, she threw out her hands to try and stop her body from connecting, regretting the action when a sharp pain shot through her left wrist. If it wasn't hurt before, it certainly was now.

"Stand up." Orochimaru said again. This time Anko rushed to comply, stumbling slightly as she pushed herself off the floor. "Good." He said, looking her up and down. "Listen to me next time. It'll save us both a lot of trouble. Now get out of my sight."

She managed to mutter, "Yes Orochimaru-sama," before running upstairs as quickly as her tired legs would allow, stopping long enough to get an ACE bandage from the bathroom before rushing into her room. She fell into her bed, wrapping her wrist up and hoping it wasn't anything more than just a sprain.

Once she finished, she fell back on her bed, sighing heavily. Her body still hurt like hell, but she wasn't about to start complaining. The last thing she needed was to attract Orochimaru's attention and start hitting her again.

Anko rolled over onto her side, wincing slightly. Her legs were dangling off the bed. They were probably the only part of her body that didn't really hurt. Orochimaru wouldn't hit her there, she only owned one pair of long pants, and they were too short, so she had no way of covering any bruises. It was the same with her face. They were the only two parts of her body that were spared when Orochimaru started in on her.

"At least I get a little bit of break cut for me." She muttered, tucking her bruised arms under her head, using them as a pillow. She was too tired and in too much pain to even consider getting up and changing into her pajamas. She couldn't even pick herself up long to enough to crawl up to the top of the bed so she could at least crawl under the covers and rest her head on the pillow. Nothing would make her comfortable right then.

Anko's sensitive ears picked up on a noise just outside the door. Orochimaru had come upstairs. She gulped, waiting to see if he would decide to come in and start hitting her some more. But some higher up force took mercy on her tired soul. The footsteps soon died away, leaving Anko as along as ever. But at least she was still in the same amount of pieces she had been in when she had stumbled up.

She closed her eyes, allowing her mind to take her into a world where pain couldn't touch her, where she could truly say she was wanted…and maybe even loved.

Author's Note: Hn...so...next chapter something actually happens, if you can believe that. Review and let me know if this is still worth continuing - Sam