Chapter 8: The New Guy

He had thought he was going to die.

Trapped under a pile of boulders, deep in hostile territory, half his body crushed, death had seemed certain. His teammates had fled, and while his sensei would almost certainly come looking for him, it was just as certain that he would be too late. And if, by some miracle, he didn't die of his injuries, the Stone ninja would kill him.

When the rocks pinning him down seemed to shimmer like a mirage in the desert, he thought he was hallucinating. Pain and blood loss must be taking their toll. Because he thought he was hallucinating, he wasn't overly surprised to see a very unusual-looking head emerge from the rocks and peer down at him. When you were hallucinating, after all, you might see anything—even a man with a plant growing out of his shoulders.

He had passed out then, and woken up in a cool, dark place. His entire body ached, and he felt drowsy. Looking around, he saw that he was lying in a bed in what looked like an infirmary. Harsh fluorescent lights glared from the ceiling, and there were no windows. He suspected that he was underground.

He spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, and saw that the man with the plant growing out of his shoulders was there. "You saved me," he whispered in a small voice.

The man nodded silently.

"Thank you."

The man shrugged, as if to say, "It was nothing." Then he came closer and stared down at the boy. "I'm Zetsu. What's your name?"

The boy opened his mouth to answer…and then realized that he didn't know. "I…have no idea," he said.

"Hmm…considering that some of those rocks fell on your head, amnesia isn't all that surprising. For now…why don't we call you Tobi?"

It took Tobi a long time to recover. Luckily, Zetsu was a superb medic, and was able to heal all of Tobi's internal injuries. External injuries, however, were another matter. His face and body were heavily scarred, and there was simply no way to replace his missing left eye. Although Zetsu told him that shinobi wore their scars as badges of honor, Tobi wore long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and a mask to conceal them.

His one remaining eye, he quickly discovered, was something special. If he concentrated really hard, he could make it turn red. Zetsu said that this was a jutsu only he could use, something that was ingrained into his genes. Tobi soon found that when this jutsu was active, he could predict an opponent's movements and copy their techniques. Zetsu told him that it was called the Sharingan, a name that sounded familiar to Tobi, although he couldn't quite say why.

Zetsu was part of an organization called Akatsuki, which he said was a group of shinobi who had left their home villages and banded together for a purpose that he refused to reveal. This organization had seven other members, and was looking for one more. Tobi had been struggling with his amnesia for months, and was no closer to remembering any details of his first thirteen years of life. One of the things that bothered him most about this was that without a hold on his past, he could not chart a course for his future. He had no idea what his goals, dreams, hopes, or fears were. He had no purpose to strive for. So when Zetsu mentioned that Akatsuki was recruiting, he latched on to that as a possibility. After all, if Zetsu belonged to the group, it must be pretty good.

Unfortunately, Akatsuki didn't open their ranks to just anyone. All the other members were powerful shinobi—something that Zetsu called "S-rank", which apparently meant that they were even stronger than jounin. Tobi was nowhere near that level. But, Zetsu said, he had great potential and might become strong enough someday. That made Tobi happy. It was reassuring to have a goal again. If he couldn't remember his previous life, he would just have to start over and make a new one for himself.

Tobi would never forget the day Uchiha Itachi tried to kill him. After nearly eight years, Akatsuki had finally found someone worthy of filling the last open spot in their organization. What made Tobi angry was that the person they'd found was barely fourteen, younger than he was. Why does this kid get to join and I don't? he wondered. But his anger evaporated when he saw the boy's eyes. They were blood-red, with three comma-shaped marks surrounding the pupils, just like his own. There was no doubt about it: the new member was related to him somehow.

Tobi was overjoyed. He was immensely grateful to the Akatsuki for rescuing him from certain death, for healing him and housing him and training him. But the fact that he had no memories of his former life nagged at him. Late at night, he would wonder what that life had been like. Where had he lived? Had he been a ninja? Had he had many friends? And most of all, had he had a family? So when he saw Itachi's scarlet eyes, he ripped off his mask, ran up to the younger boy, and embraced him like a brother.

This turned out to be a rather bad idea.

The next thing Tobi knew, he was pinned against a wall, with one of Itachi's hands in a vise-like grip around his neck. He gasped and tried to pull Itachi's fingers away from his throat, but to no avail. He tried to form the hand seals for a jutsu, but all the strength was leaving his limbs. His vision was fading out around the edges, and he was starting to feel light-headed.

"Itachi-san! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Oh, thank the gods! Zetsu-san is here.

"This individual is a member of my clan. The test your organization set for me was to destroy that clan. I was allowed to choose only one to spare, and I have already chosen my brother. Therefore, I must kill this person."

Wait, the Akatsuki made him kill his own family in order to join them? Why would they do something like that?

"Tobi-kun is a subordinate of the Akatsuki. As such, he is exempt from the requirement we set for you."

"You did not tell me this before. I apologize." The hand was removed from his neck, and Itachi asked, "Do you require medical attention?"

"No…no, I don't think so. But, is it true that you and me are related?"

"Apparently." Itachi evidently did not feel like giving a more detailed explanation, because he left the room without another word.

Later, Zetsu told Tobi that he and Itachi were most likely cousins. Tobi nodded, and then asked tentatively, "Zetsu-san, Itachi-san said that the Akatsuki made him kill his family so that he could join you. Why did you do that?"

Zetsu pondered for a moment before he replied, "The Uchiha clan was dangerous."

"Because of their abilities? The Sharingan?"

"Yes."

"Zetsu-san…I have the Sharingan too. Am I dangerous?"

"No, Tobi-kun. You're a good boy."

From what Itachi had said on that occasion, Tobi knew that he had another living relative, Itachi's brother. Unfortunately, he didn't know the other Uchiha's name or anything about him. When he tried to ask Itachi about it, Itachi fixed him with a glare that made him want to curl up in a corner and whimper to himself. He was not destined to encounter Sasuke until many years later.

Secrecy was the code by which the Akatsuki operated, and there was only one man outside of their organization who knew the full extent of their plans. That man was Orochimaru, and the Akatsuki had decided that the time had finally come to silence him. Itachi, Kisame, Deidara, Tobi, and Zetsu were sent to the Sound Village to assassinate the former Sannin. The mission started out easy. Most of Orochimaru's subordinates were nowhere near the Akatsuki's level, and the five S-ranked shinobi destroyed them without any difficulty. Kabuto proved to be a trickier opponent, but even he eventually fell to the devastating power of Kisame's Samehada. Everyone was wondering when Orochimaru himself was going to show up—they seemed to be running out of minions to fight—when a voice rang out across the clearing: "UCHIHA ITACHI! I WILL KILL YOU!"

All five Akatsuki members turned to face the new arrival, and Tobi gasped. The boy had short black hair that stuck up in the back, exactly like his own. And his eyes were crimson with the power of the Sharingan.

Without further ado, Sasuke held up one hand, and blue chakra glowed around it. With his own Sharingan, Tobi instantly analyzed and copied the technique. It was powerful, and clearly meant for instant obliteration of the opponent. Sasuke began to sprint towards Itachi, a murderous grimace twisting his face. Itachi's his only brother, and he wants to kill him? Tobi ran through a flurry of seals, and activated a Chidori of his own. Throwing himself into the gap between Sasuke and Itachi, he held the luminescent ball of chakra out in front of him, yelling, "STOP!"

Sasuke skidded to a halt barely a foot away from him. "Get out of my way," he said in a voice that was utterly cold.

"He's your brother, your family," Tobi implored. "Brothers shouldn't hurt each other."

"What the hell would you know about it?" Sasuke snarled.

"More than you think," Tobi responded, and slowly removed his mask.

Sasuke's jaw dropped. "You…who are you?"

"I don't know the name I was born with, but I'm part of the Uchiha clan, and the name Zetsu-san gave me when he saved my life is Tobi."

Sasuke looked back and forth between Itachi and Tobi. "But…if you're an Uchiha…why are you alive? Why didn't Itachi kill you?"

Itachi raised an eyebrow and glanced disdainfully at his brother. "A ninja is supposed to possess superb observational skills. If you had any at all, Sasuke, you would notice that Tobi-san is an Akatsuki member. As such, there was no need for me to kill him."

"And you work with him?" Sasuke demanded furiously of Tobi. "You fight on his side after what he did to our family?"

"I don't remember anything of the Uchiha clan," Tobi said. "The only family I have any memory of is the Akatsuki, so of course I fight for them."

"Your real family is the Uchiha clan, the one that bastard destroyed," Sasuke shot back. "They were good, and kind, and noble, and he killed all of them without a single regret!"

"Your memory of our family," Itachi broke in calmly, "is distorted by the innocence of your childhood. Our clan was arrogant and drunk on its own power. Our clansmen knew they had the ability to control demons, and they sought to bring the Kyuubi itself under their influence. The plan backfired, and the Kyuubi almost destroyed Konoha. Rather than admit their shame, our elders hid what they had done from the rest of the village. They were hardly the noble protectors of Konoha that you imagine them to be."

Tobi was aghast. The family he had dreamed about for so long had done that? They had brought down a catastrophe upon their village and refused to accept responsibility for it afterwards? He had imagined his family to be a proud clan of ninjas, heroically defending their village no matter the cost. He had most certainly not imagined this. He looked back and forth between the two brothers. They were both his family, but they seemed intent on killing each other.

"How dare you say that about our clan?" Sasuke growled, glaring at Itachi. "They would never have done such a thing!" Again, chakra glowed around his hand so that it appeared to be wreathed in lightning.

"Wait!" Tobi cried. "Sasuke-san, if our clan was from Konoha, then why are you here? Why are you with Orochimaru?"

"In Konoha, I allowed myself to be lulled by dreams of companionship and hope. I began to forget my goal, my ambition of killing Itachi. I left Konoha to pursue that ambition by obtaining power from Orochimaru-sama."

"You left your friends behind? The people who cared about you after the death of your clan? You just…abandoned them?" Tobi stared at the ground. In the back of his mind, he had always cherished a dream of discovering the family he had been born into, of reuniting with them. But now he wondered, even if the Uchiha clan had been alive and vibrant, would he be willing to leave the Akatsuki for them? Could he abandon the people who had saved his life, who had become, in some ways, a surrogate family? Certainly they were not perfect. Itachi hardly ever spoke, Hidan was always complaining about something or other, and random objects tended to explode whenever Deidara was around. But they were all he had, and he knew that he could never abandon them, no matter what anyone else offered him. "I could never do something like that," he said softly. "I know what it's like to lose everything. I don't even have memories to hold close to my heart like you do. And I know what it's like to have to rebuild your life from nothing. I never could have survived that if it weren't for the comrades I've found in the Akatsuki. I could never walk away from them the way you've walked away from your friends."

Sasuke stared at him, a mix of emotions flitting across his face. "What I've done in the past doesn't matter," he finally said in a hoarse voice. "All that matters is that I'm here now, and Itachi is here, and I'm going to kill him."

Tobi activated his own newly-discovered Chidori once again, and stepped in front of Itachi. "I won't let you," he told Sasuke resolutely. "You may be able to walk away from your friends, but not me. Those shinobi who won't protect their comrades are worse than trash, and I'm not like that!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. "That…that saying…I recognize it: 'Those who break the rules and regulations are called trash, but those who won't protect their friends are worse than trash'…My sensei said that, a long time ago."

Tobi smiled. "It sounds like your sensei was a wise man."

Sasuke slowly lowered his hand, and the glow around it disappeared. "I never thought there would be another Uchiha alive," he said. "Even if you are with Akatsuki, I can't kill you. But I know you're not Itachi's regular partner. You won't always be around to protect him, and one day, I will kill him." Turning his back on the assembled Akatsuki members, Sasuke walked away.

"Where are you going, Sasuke?" Itachi called after him.

"Back to Konoha."

Tobi felt an intent gaze directed at him, and turned to find that it belonged to Itachi. "What's wrong, Itachi-san?"

"That saying you quoted to Sasuke…I recognize it too. When I was in ANBU, it was my jounin supervisor's favorite motto. His name was Hatake Kakashi. He had a friend from our clan who was believed to have died on a mission years earlier, a boy named Uchiha Obito. I believe that is who you are."

Itachi turned and walked away, followed by Kisame, Deidara, and Zetsu. Orochimaru had clearly hidden or fled, otherwise he would have tried to stop Sasuke from leaving. Without the Sound Village to back him up, he didn't pose much of a threat anyway.

Tobi watched the Akatsuki leave, and then looked in the direction Sasuke had gone. Which identity to follow? Tobi or Obito? Leaf-nin or Akatsuki member? Friend of Kakashi or partner of Deidara?

Those who won't protect their friends are worse than trash…

In the end, he had no memory of anyone from Konoha. But the Akatsuki…they had become his friends, his comrades. And as he had told Sasuke, he could not imagine leaving them behind.

Tobi ran after the Akatsuki members, sprinting to catch up with them.

A/N: So, I wrote a really long story about Tobi a while back ("Musings of an Akatsuki Wannabe") in which he was not Obito, although he did have a bloodline limit and only one functional eye. For this story, I decided to do a completely different take on the character and have him be the presumed-dead Uchiha. I don't think it was ever stated in the manga exactly how Obito was related to Sasuke and Itachi, but I imagined him as their cousin.

The thing Itachi says about the Uchiha having the ability to control demons is based on the ability Sasuke demonstrated to suppress the Kyuubi within Naruto's mind. Itachi's description of how the Uchiha misused that power, leading to the Kyuubi's fateful attack on Konoha, is sort of a pet theory of mine for what Itachi might have discovered about his clan that made him hate them.

I'm starting to get really busy with schoolwork, so I may not be able to update weekly like I've been doing up to this point. I will try not to have the delays be too horrendous, however. The next chapter will be about Kisame, followed by Sasori's chapter (which will be the final one).