Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not profiting from this. If there are mistakes, please message me.

Sorry it's late. I didn't know how to write this part. I'm still not sure how to write it, but here's what I came up with.

I hope you enjoy it, thanks for looking.


Part 11: Who has blue lips, who has red hands?

"Thank you for meeting with me, Uchiha-san," Minato smiled at the man as he sat down at the table. The man smiled back.

"It's no bother at all, Namikaze-san. I hope you're not here to tell me about all the troubles Obito's caused," the Uchiha replied.

"Ah ha, no, no. I just wanted to ask a few questions. Particularly about his upbringing," Minato said.

"Ah, ah. Yes. Of course, go ahead. I'll answer what I can," Ichiro looked about nervously. He was a naturally nervous man, and the war didn't help him in any way. Minato's reassuring gestures also did little to help.


"Woooaaaaahhhhhh… That's a lot of trees," Obito gaped at the sight before him.

"Why are you so amazed? We only took four steps outside the gate," Kakashi pointed out.

"Astute observation, Hatake-san. Truly a genius," Obito smirked at the other boy. Kakashi looked largely unamused.

"Obi, is this your first time outside the village?" Rin asked kindly.

"Yup! I never really had a good reason to go outside, so the clan never let me."

"Alright, kids. Let's get this mission over with. It might feel nice and quiet, but remember we're at war right now," Minato chimed in.

"Yes, sir!"


Perhaps the "first C rank mission is bound to go wrong" phenomenon is true. Kakashi mused briefly on the thought before snapping back to reality. The reality that is a bunch of adults trying to kill a bunch of children (plus one adult).

Kakashi had been a ninja for many years, for as long as he could remember. Killing came as naturally as breathing (though he was definitely not proud of that). Going through the motions, he momentarily forgot he was part of a team in which half the members were new to real combat. A mistake on his part.

As he slashed and stabbed his way through his opponent, he quickly realized how much of a handicap his height was. Damn his short limbs! But of course, he wasn't a prodigy for nothing. Overcoming his short stature was nothing. He easily jumped his way to hit the vitals. The enemy was fast, but so was he.

When things seemed to be calm enough, Kakashi looked around to check up on his team. And then realized Obito and Rin had taken their first lives.


Rin didn't know the proper way to react to killing. So she simply cried. Silently, the tears fell, and really, she didn't even know she was crying. It felt nice to have Minato-sensei hug her and ground her in place, but… she had committed a grave deed. Murder in cold blood.

Rin wept.


Since Minato-sensei was occupied with Rin, Kakashi went to check up on Obito. The boy looked pretty shaken up. Shivering with a tense grin frozen on his face. Guess he didn't know how to react either.

"Obito, you doing alright?" Kakashi asked and immediately wanted to punch himself. Of course the kid wasn't alright.

"Mm. Mhm. Yup. Hm. Ah. Yeah. Other than the fact I took part in straight up murder, I got hit," Obito spoke in staccato as he shrugged one shoulder. The shoulder that was connected to a bleeding arm.

"Ah. Let me take a look at that." Kakashi's forte was not social skills, but the least he could do was keep Obito's attention away from the slowly cooling bodies.


The dressing Hatake had given his arm was neat, but still rudimentary. He said the wound didn't look serious enough to need stitches, so there was that, a silver lining, Obito supposed. (Obito was still going to have Rin look at it. But not right now.) Then Namikaze-sensei switched places with Hatake.

"Obito, how are you holding up?" he asked with such genuine concern. Obito graced him with an equally genuine answer.

"Not very good," Obito admitted, then quickly tacked on, "but I can still go on."

"Are you sure?" his teacher pressed.

"Mhm. Message delivery missions are important. Informations are like gold, you know? Of course you know." Obito started rambling to keep himself distracted. He vaguely noted being hugged. He then started rambling on about how he liked to gently squeeze cats to his chest and carry them around the compound.

Truly, he hated war.


During the night, they took guard shifts. Obito wanted to go first since his nerves were pretty frayed, but Rin volunteered. She was feeling jumpy and anxious as well. Obito volunteered for the second shift.

Neither he nor Rin could fall asleep until the fourth shift. Throughout the night, they simply looked at each other, sometimes closing their eyes only to startle and seek comfort from the other.

It was a long night.


The entire mission took a week and a few days. It was silently the entire time, but after their first encounter, the rest of the way was deadly silent filled with frantic eyes and anxious hands.

And finally, home.

Actually, not quite. They had to report back. And then home.

But before that...


"Kakashi-kun. Are you doing okay?" Rin asked him suddenly when they stepped out of the office. Minato-sensei had other businesses to take care of, so he had left right away.

"I'm okay. Why do you ask?" he questioned. He saw Rin and Obito glance at each other before looking back at him.

"O-oh, just wondering because you know…" Rin trailed off, uncertainty coloring her voice.

"Yeah, you know," Obito picked up for her, though he was having trouble finding his words as well. "You know. Uh."

"I don't know. Just say it," Kakashi gave them a way out. Just say it.

"Okay. I'll just say it then." Obito caught Rin's gaze another time before taking a big breath. "Um, yeah. You killed someone, and I'm pretty sure that was your first… Unless it's not."

Oh yeah.


That was quite uncomfortable to say, but Obito (and Rin) didn't know another way to say it. That whole conversation was uncomfortable and awkward.

Well, awkward for Kakashi, since he had to come up with a good excuse for his calmness.


"Kakashi-kun?" His friends were getting increasingly concerned for him. He needed to answer, quickly. So he said the first thing that came to mind.

"My dad trained me to be desensitized to killing from a very young age. It worked."

Silence and staring.

"Hatake-san, I'm sorry, but your dad sounds fucking savage."

Sorry, dad, but now my friends think you were some hardass shithead.


Obito walked slowly toward the compound. He eventually entered the gates and stood in front of his door. He could hear Ichiro inside. Before he could knock, Ichiro opened the door.

"Obito!" The man took one look at the child, and he knew.

"Ichi-san, I did something bad," the child spoke as his voice wavered and eyes flooded with tears.

Really, he hated war.


note: I wanted to include the conversation between Minato and Ichiro, but cut it out. I'll include it when this is all done or something. If you want to know how the conversation went right now, just message me and I will tell you.