Sunlight hits Obito's eyes the moment he walks out the door, and he blinks away the remnants with a shake of his head. There is a lump in his throat as he takes in the view before him – the brightly colored rooftops, the bright green foliage that had given the village its name, the distant, humbling view of the Hokage Monument, with three faces instead of the four, five that he still expects to see.
It's beautiful.
It had been almost two decades since the last time Obito saw the village like this. As Madara, he had brought death and pain and fire in the dead of night, had felt triumph as the Kyuubi laid waste to Obito's former comrades, even as the wounds that Minato (sensei) had dealt him throbbed in dull pain. He wonders if daylight and the familiarity of home, would have made any difference to his twisted mind, back then.
Probably not.
He only realizes that he has halted in his steps when Rin says, concerned, "Obito… are you alright?"
Obito blinks. "I…" He trails off.
In his years as Madara, he had found himself privy to dozens of Konoha's dark secrets, a tainted history of the village that his thirteen year old self could have never fathomed. The existence of ROOT and its spiriting away of the brightest orphans the village had to offer had been a shock – it came as no surprise to him whatsoever to find out, after some thoughtful digging, that Kakashi himself had narrowly avoided being inducted into its faceless ranks. The political schemes that had connected Danzo and a myriad of warlords (including, eventually, himself) across the nations had been nothing but a useful tool, after that revelation.
Subconsciously, he had used this knowledge in order to justify his actions. The village deserved it. The Clan had deserved it. The village had espoused their 'Will of Fire' and yet, they had still sent children to fight and die on the battlefield.
Perhaps, without Madara's manipulations, he could have been someone like Naruto, who had seen the truth of the shinobi world, and yet, still held the faith that it could be changed, could be reformed. Instead, he had been driven to destruction – tear it all down and start anew, make a world of truth (of lies) – because it had been easier than accepting reality.
The Hokage Monument seems oddly lacking, without Minato-sensei, without Tsunade, without Kakashi – because if the bastard didn't take up the post, Obito would have found some way to haunt him from beyond the grave.
Obito no longer held the dream of Hokage, because all that had been was a physical manifestation of his desire for acknowledgement and acceptance. But now, his team stood on the precipice of a new era – the possibility of change bright in front of them.
He smiles. "Yeah, Rin. I'm good."
Walking through the Uchiha Compound was a unique kind of torture. Which of the men and women around him had he killed personally? Which of them had died, instead, in the Kyuubi attack? Obito finds himself flinching every time a fellow clan member meets his eyes, and oddly stunned as they look away, dismissive.
It had been years that he had been truly overlooked. He was used to being powerful – a fact that he could admit with no compunctions, because he had the Mokuton, the Mangekyo, along with half a dozen other abilities and powers that would have made his thirteen year old self cry with joy. With Madara's reputation, he had been on equal and superior footing to shinobi powers decades older than him.
Now, he was a thirteen year old child, a somewhat lackluster Uchiha chunin who – as far as anyone not on his team knew – had not even unlocked the first stage of his Sharingan. As far as history knew, he would be dead and forgotten within the month.
Over the years, Obito had learned the value of being underestimated. His entire Tobi persona had been proof to that, even if the routine hadn't been enough to fool anyone by the end.
This… This was going to be fun.
They're about halfway down the street when Rin taps him on the shoulder. "I'm not sure if I want to know what you're grinning about, Obito," she says, "but I think there's someone over there who wants to get your attention!"
His eyes follow the direction of her pointing finger and fixate on a single pudgy hand waving behind an oil-smudged window. Moments later, a small, grinning face pops into view.
Obito's heart sinks as he sees the tiny facial creases, and he can practically hear the 'Obito-nii!' that the boy mouths so eagerly. "I'll catch up to you later, Rin. That's my baby cousin."
"Oh, so that's why he looks so familiar!"
"You've met Itachi before?" He can't help but ask, bewildered.
Rin bites her lip, and Obito knows that he had asked the wrong question. "He was at your funeral," she says finally, and he can't say anything other than a weak, "Oh."
"Anyways," she says quickly, "you should go say hi! It's been a long time since you've last seen him, right? I'm heading to the hospital, if you need to find me later."
Obito isn't nearly masochistic enough to tell her that it had been a much shorter time than she assumed. "…I'll see you later, Rin."
He watches as she leaves, brown hair blowing haphazardly in the wind as she runs. A second later, a weight clamps onto his lower waist, and it's so unexpected that he almost uses Kamui to dodge. "Ack!" Obito yelps, and then freezes when large black eyes stare up at him.
"You're late, Obito-nii!" The boy accuses, a pout on his face. "...Don't tell me that you were going to ditch me for that girl you like!"
"Itachi," he breathes. Obito cannot see any of the hardened killer he had known in the face of this small child, none of the man who had been one of the most feared members of the Akatsuki, who had been just another one of Madara's (his) pawns.
But Itachi had always been more perceptive as a child than most shinobi in the village. The boy's arms loosen from his torso, and he asks seriously, "Is there something wrong, Obito-nii?"
He pastes a smile on his face, and hopes it reaches his eyes. "I'm fine, Itachi-chan! I just woke up late today… I guess my alarm clock finally died. Am I babysitting you today?" Obito asks, taking a wild guess.
Judging by the narrowing of Itachi's eyes, Obito's smile had fooled no one. "You said you were going to take to get dango today, Obito-nii," he said plaintively.
"D-Dango, huh?" He stutters, as it hits him that he had no idea at all where the dango place was. It had been years, in his defense, and it wasn't as if sweets were on his mind at all during his leadership of Akatsuki and his launching of the Fourth Shinobi War. "There's the place, uh, near the Hokage Tower, right?"
"Are you still asleep, Obito-nii?" The boy asks with a frown. "…Kaa-san's going to catch us if we don't go now!" He yanks on Obito's hand, and Obito allows himself to be pulled forward.
As it turned out, the dango stand was near the Hokage Tower, the bright green banner proclaiming the prices and the day's specials in vibrant red paint. As a kindly old woman takes their orders with a smile, Obito tries valiantly not to wonder if she had been one of the first casualties of the Kyuubi, practically incinerated by the sheer power of the creature's chakra.
"I'll have the bocchan dango," he says after a brief moment, picking it randomly off of the single page menu.
The last time Obito had the sweet, he had been with a certain bombastic blonde and had spent most of the time trying to figure out how to eat the thing through a mask with only one eye hole. In the end, he had cheated and used Kamui. Sometimes, he really wondered how Kakashi did it.
"Me too!" Itachi pipes up beside him. As the elderly woman retrieves their menus, the boy whispers, "Eh, Obito-nii… why did you get the bocchan?"
"Huh?"
"You told me that you hated eggs, so you always get the chadango instead!" Green tea, huh?
Honestly, Obito had no memory of the fact. "I just wanted to try something new," he says weakly. "I mean, eggs aren't that bad."
Not that he remembered what they tasted like, what with him not having to eat for the past two decades. Having plant matter composing half of his body meant that he could devote all of his life to Madara's plans, without wasting precious hours on eating or sleeping. It was a shock to feel hunger at all.
Moments later, when the dango arrived piping hot in front of them, Obito quickly finds himself regretting his decision. He gags on the yellow piece of disgusting slime, never again but chokes it down when Itachi gives him an odd look.
"…Must have gone down the wrong way," he mutters, and surreptitiously wonders if he can Kamui the other piece away. Surely, that didn't count as misuse of an S-rank space-time jutsu.
"Kaa-san told me that if you eat too fast, you'll choke," Itachi says seriously. "You can't just swallow down dango like that, Obito-nii!"
"I'll keep it in mind," Obito replies with a smile, trying to get over the novelty of being lectured by a four year old. "What's going on, Itachi-chan? It's been a while since the last time we talked." At least, he hopes it had been. As unique the circumstances were, it was a bit embarrassing for him to be caught in a lie by a toddler (albeit, a genius one) multiple times in a conversation.
Luckily, he had guessed correctly. The small boy squints in thought. "Otou-san wants me to enter the Academy next year," he says.
Obito would be surprised, if he hadn't known about how Itachi flew through the ranks in his previous timeline. In fact, if he remembered correctly, the boy would graduate at 7, a full two years before himself. "Huh, that's pretty early," he says noncommittally. In peacetime, most Academy students enrolled at eight, barring exceptions like Kakashi.
"Uh-huh. Kaa-san doesn't want me to go. She thinks I'm too young." Itachi pauses, and then mutters, as if imparting a deep secret – and for all Obito knew, it was – "…I don't want to go, either."
Obito's dango halts halfway to his mouth, and he blinks in shock. Itachi… didn't want to enter the Academy early? But he was a genius – and even more so, he had motivation. Even with all the innate skill and intelligence in the world, one didn't make ANBU Captain at thirteen without wanting to, as countless generations of Nara have exhibited. "…Eh? Why not?"
Itachi furrows his brows in thought. "Obito-nii… if I tell you about this, will you promise not to tell anyone? Not even kaa-san." He holds out a hand, pinky outstretched. "Pinky promise, Obito-nii?"
The gesture was so... childish (normal) that, for a moment, he can't help but stare in stunned disbelief. How had the person – the kid in front of him turned into the Uchiha Itachi he had been familiar with in the future?
Yes, Obito knew the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre, probably more so than anyone else alive, considering he had partook in it – but even without the label of 'insane killer of his entire clan,' Itachi was hardly the most personable of people. But the Itachi in front him… was by all means, a normal, if especially perceptive and intelligent, child.
"Sure," he says weakly, and loops the kid's pudgy finger with his own. "I promise, Itachi-chan. Not even to your mom."
"Some of otou-san's friends say things about me, when they don't think I'm there." Itachi bites his lip. "…It's because I don't like to train a lot, so they don't think I will be a good heir. Otou-san wants me to join the Academy to show them that I want to be a strong shinobi."
For the first time since Obito had woken up in the past, he feels as if he does not hold all the cards in his hands. After so many years working with the adult Itachi, he had thought he understood everything about the clan genius. But it was now apparent that he had been working under false pretenses. He had underestimated the man. When had Itachi ever been seen as anything other than the pride of the clan?
"Training is easy for you, ne? You'll be a strong shinobi for sure!"
"Obito-nii…" The boy swallows. "…I don't want to be a shinobi, Obito-nii." He says it as if admitting to a grievous crime. In a shinobi village, as the heir to one of its foremost clans… it might as well be. "I don't want to fight in a war and kill people, not when we can have peace. I – I read a lot about the world, and – I know the villages can stop fighting one day, and no one else will have to die. I don't want to go to the Academy now… but I don't want to go there in the future either."
For one stunned moment, Obito wonders if he was still in the same universe. Uchiha Itachi… a pacifist? One of the strongest shinobi of his generation, someone who couldn't stand the thought of killing?
But… it explained so much. Itachi and Nagato had always gotten along better than he had ever expected, and it certainly brought a new dimension to Itachi's refusal to allow the Uchiha coup to take place. It was impressive, really, how the man had kept it hidden from the manipulator he had believed to be Madara – Obito shuddered to think of how much easier it would have been to play Itachi if he had known the truth, back then.
Obito looks at the boy in front of him, a child of peace born into a village destined for war – and smiles, big and wide. Screw the timeline – he had done enough to destroy Itachi's life, it was time that he did something to fix it. "Itachi-chan," he says, "you don't have to be a shinobi. Not if you don't want to."
Itachi blinks, eyes wide. "But otou-san, all of otou-san's friends –" He says uncertainly.
"I hate war as well. But… I think the villages will one day find peace," Obito says, thinking of the forces of the five great villages, united against a common enemy – him. Yes, he was certain that the inter-village violence and constant political jockeying would one day come to an end – he just hoped he didn't have to start a war for it to happen.
His thirteen year old self had been excited enough to fight, to actually use his abilities on the battlefield. But as Minato-sensei had told him then, war was not a game. It had taken his mutilation, Rin's death, and adulthood to realize it.
"But – you're shinobi, Obito-nii."
"Yeah, I am. As a shinobi, I have the power to protect the people I care about – my teammates, my friends… and you as well, Itachi-chan. I don't want to kill people, but… it's a sad fact of this reality. And it will stay that way, until there are people who decide to change it."
Itachi blinks, and narrows his eyes. "I – I want to change that, Obito-nii!" He decides, his eagerness obvious.
In that moment, Obito can't help but find it ridiculously adorable. If Rin was here right now, she would probably squish the kid's cheeks. "Yeah," he chuckles. "…Yeah, me too. But Itachi-chan…" Obito says, serious again. "In this world, you have to be strong in order to change it. You've heard about Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama, right…? They wanted peace as well, and that's why they made this village. But in order to do it, they had to be very strong – in fact, they were probably the strongest shinobi alive, back then."
He smiles, a bit sadly. "I told you that you don't have to be shinobi if you don't want to. I don't think you should be forced into something like that. But being a shinobi is also more than just killing and fighting. It's about protecting the people you care about, and it's also about becoming strong enough to make a difference."
Because… in the end, that was how it worked. Even Naruto could not have accomplished what he could without the Kyuubi sealed within him, or his large amounts of chakra. Even he could not have put his outrageous amount of charisma to use beyond the grave. There was a reason that the only civilian powers that survived were the ones that had become too inconvenient to kill off.
After a moment, Itachi nods. "I understand, Obito-nii. I still don't want to be a shinobi, but… I want to protect my kaa-san, my otou-san, my future little brother – and I want to protect you too, Obito-nii!"
Obito blinks, aghast. "M-Me?" Should he be offended at the prospect of being protected by a four year old?
"You're my favorite cousin, Obito-nii! No one else gets me dango, and… no one else ever said it was okay to not be shinobi, not even kaa-san and otou-san." Itachi's smile is wide on his face, and for a moment, Obito is unsure of what emotion he feels swirling in his gut.
Oh, right – crushing guilt. He returns a pained grin, and tries not to think of the older Itachi, dead at the hands of his own, beloved younger brother. "I'm glad, Itachi-chan."
"...I think kaa-san is going to be back from visiting her friend soon, Obito-nii," the boy says, after a glance at the clock hanging from the dango stand wall. "I have to get back before she comes home, or else she'll get mad at me. You'll take me to get dango next week too, right?"
He's about to say yes, before he remembers what the next week means for him. "I'm sorry, Itachi-chan. I can't - I have a mission." Kannabi Bridge. And, if all went according to his plans... that mission would mean the end of Uchiha Madara and his immortal manipulator's plans for the shinobi world.
"Then next week! Bye, Obito-nii!" And before Obito can ask if the kid needs someone to take him home - he was four - Itachi was off and running into the distance.
Obito watches him go. Talking to Itachi - this Itachi - had been a shock. Had Itachi been like in his own timeline? Had the boy ever revealed to his older cousin his pacifist nature, back then? It had been so many years since then, that it was certainly possible that Obito had just forgotten about the words of a baby cousin.
Having half of his head smashed in by a rock certainly did nothing to help his memory, and neither did the large amount of trauma he had underwent shortly after it. By the time he had seen Itachi again, he had been firmly entrenched in the persona of Madara - Madara, who had no reason to remember any bit of Obito's past, who had no mercy for anyone who had treated Obito kindly during his childhood years.
What had set Itachi on the path to being a shinobi - and, even worse, a weapon? Yes, the carnage and death that had came with war and, soon afterwards, the Kyuubi attack. But Itachi had joined the Academy now, not then. As little as he remembered about his childhood, Obito knew that he would have never urged a four year old to become a killer, especially when the kid was so set against it. So, what had motivated Itachi to join? And he must have agreed to it, because as much of a hardass Fugaku had always been, Mikoto was never one to back down, not when family was at stake. Obito was evidence enough of that.
And then, it dawns on him. The irony is so thick that Obito wants to laugh.
You're my favorite cousin, Obito-nii!
Yes, Itachi had a heart-to-heart with his favorite cousin, Obito-nii, who had - no doubt - encouraged him to follow his dreams and not listen to anyone who wanted him to do otherwise. That was the kind of person that thirteen year old Uchiha Obito was (and he refused to think about the implications of the fact that he had told Itachi pretty much the same.)
And then, days afterwards, the same Obito-nii was crushed under a boulder in Iwa, never to take little Itachi-chan to dango again. What could Itachi do but the take the only path he thought he could take, in order to protect his family the way he couldn't protect his Obito-nii?
And, unbeknownst to either of them, the same Obito-nii would emerge decades later to prey on a talented young ANBU Captain in an unenviable position, under the guise of a mutual ancestor.
Obito put a hand to his face... He had screwed up Itachi's life even more than he knew.
"...Cute kid, huh?" Kakashi says from next to him. "I see you channeled Naruto a bit."
He lets out a rather undignified squawk of surprise, and whips around. "Kakashi?"
"He was on my ANBU squad for a few months, you know. Adorable pre-teen killer, though I guess I can't say much about that, considering who I am. Stoic, but he called me Kakashi-senpai. Kakashi-senpai. And here, I thought only Tenzou did that." Kakashi shakes his head, a single stick of Itachi's left over dango in his hand as he sits on the seat the boy had just vacated. "He wouldn't say much most of the time, but give him just a little bit of painkillers, and he would go on and on about his Obito-nii, and how he never came back again-"
His eyes narrow. "Kakashi, what is your point."
"Well, it was pretty sad. I cried a bit, even," Kakashi says blandly. "Though, I have to say... I was pretty surprised when the cute kid slaughtered his entire clan and turned traitor. But... from what you mentioned before, there was more to it then that, huh?"
[A/N: ...And the Danzo-ROOT conversation is for the next chapter. Hehe.
This chapter had a lot of my headcanons for kid Itachi and his interaction with Obito. I based their relationship in this chapter off of 'Shame and Fame' (in which Obito's death resulted in Itachi taking the path he takes in canon, though in a different way than in the fic) and 'A Mirror, In Two Parts' (for the headcanon that Itachi was looked down by his clan before he showed his aptitude for, well, being a shinobi.)
Again, I would really appreciate your feedback on the chapter, as well as any suggestions to things I can improve. I know there's not a lot of action or explicit game changing events, but the nature of the fic means that things won't start rolling until the Kannabi Bridge mission. The next chapter will be, as I mentioned before, on the Danzo-ROOT issue, as well as Minato sorting things out with Kushina. Depending on length, there might also be the long awaited Kakashi-Gai 'reunion'. And, judging by the review counts for each chapter, after that should be the bonus. That will be fun.]