Chapter 3

Madara didn't get angry often. Even less often after he got serious about Rin instead of thinking of her as just an ideal partner. When it did happen, it was usually best to stay out of his way.

"Just who does he think he is?!" Madara shouted angrily.

He and Obito were at the training area in the woods, and Madara was throwing shurikens with deadly force and accuracy at the targets.

Obito sat a safe distance away, watching the display. "Our father." He suggested.

"After that he certainly isn't mine." Madara seethed, throwing another shuriken.

"Don't say that, Madara." Obito chastised.

"And you!" Madara whirled around to face Obito, who was watching him calmly, but looked a little surprised at the sudden attention. "Why are you defending him? You're the one who just got kicked out of the house!"

Obito shrugged. "He always liked you best. I'm used to it. I was sure this would happen sooner or later. I actually thought it might happen sooner than this." Obito replied. "I've been looking at apartments since I was thirteen. Guess I'll be getting one of those."

He was sixteen now. The fight with his father had started over talk of Madara marrying Rin. Sure, they were young, but ninja died young all the time. So, why wait? And Rin made Madara a person who was much easier to be around. That was Madara's logic. And they had been together for a few years already. They both knew there was no one else for them.

Their dad didn't approve. Not because of age, but because of Rin. He thought medical ninja were useful, but he didn't want either of his sons marrying one. They were to marry strong woman to have strong children to continue the Uchiha legacy of greatness.

Madara and their father started arguing and getting angry. So, Obito decided the best way to make this fight go away was to change the topic. Something to switch the focus and make what Madara wanted seem not so bad in comparison.

"I don't know, father. I think you should take what you can get. At least with Rin there could be grandkids. It will be a bit more complicated for me to have any, what with me being interested in men and all."

For a moment there had been absolute silence.

"I beg your pardon?" His father said quietly.

"Well, there are ways to have children, of course. Adoptions, surrogates, stuff like that. But with adoption there isn't any guarantee that they'd even have ninja parents at all. So, it kind of makes worrying about him having kids with a medical ninja seem stupid." Obito replied with a shrug.

"Get your things and get out of my house." Their father said with a glare.

"You can't just kick him out!" Madara exclaimed.

"It's my house! I can do as I please! No son of mine will be taking it up the ass!" Their father shouted back at Madara.

"Everyone just calm down. I'll get my things and leave. It's not a problem." Obito said, trying to get the fighting to stop.

Madara had followed him out of the house, and now they were at the training grounds.

"Well, I'll leave too then." Madara told him.

"Don't do that." Obito said, shaking his head. "You don't have to leave just because he kicked me out."

"I know that I don't have to. But if he's kicking you out, it's not like I have anything worth staying there for."

"Except financial support." Obito said flatly.

"If you can manage without it, I certainly can." Madara argued.

"I've been anticipating having to do that though, saving for it. You've been saving for a ring for Rin." Obito usually wasn't the reasonable one. He took up that role whenever Madara got angry like this though, because one of them had to rationalize. They'd end up starting a war or suggesting an allied shinobi force or something crazy like that if they didn't have at least one talking rationally.

"I got the ring this morning actually." Madara said, sitting down next to Obito. Obito hoped that meant he was calming down.

"There you go then." Obito waved his hand to dismiss the subject of Madara moving out.

"I could stay with you until I save up enough to get a place with Rin."

"And enough for the wedding ring. And the wedding itself. And feeding yourselves after that." Obito listed.

"Is that your way of saying you don't want to live with me?"

"No, it's my way of letting you know what you're getting yourself into." Obito corrected.

"I can handle it." Madara told him, rolling his eyes at the insinuation that he couldn't.

"Alright. Flatmates it is then."

They were quite for a few minutes as they both thought that through.

"Hey, Obito, I've got a question for you." Madara said.

"The answer is no." Obito said with a grin.

"That won't even make sense when you hear the question." Madara informed him.

"Not yes or no then? Damn, might have to think of a real answer. Alright, so what's the question?"

"Why didn't you tell me about the whole being gay thing?" Madara asked. He was looking at the ground in a way Obito knew meant he was hurt, but trying to act like he didn't care.

"It never came up."

"Bullshit. All those times I tried to set you up with a girl you could have just said 'Oh, Madara, that won't work since I'm into guys'." Madara said, changing his voice for the part where Obito was supposed to talk, despite the fact that they had the same voice.

"No way, man, it's got to be more dramatic than that. I'm coming out to you in this story you're conjuring." Obito protested.

"Right, sorry. How's this?" He cleared his throat and stole Obito's goggles. "Madara, I must decline. For I –oh dear, how to say it- I much prefer having the sex with people of the same gender as myself. So, as nice as it is of you to try to medal in my love life, you're going about it all wrong." Madara declared dramatically.

"Sounds about right." Obito told him while laughing and taking his goggles back. "You dind't have to take those to do that." He said as he put them back on.

"Like you would come out to me without those things. I think you'd sleep with them on if you could. If I ever have to ID your body I'll just ask if the guy has hideous orange goggles."

"And they'll tell you that he doesn't, but he does have some pretty cool goggles." Obito replied. "Save them for me. Don't let them steal them off my slowly rotting body." He added in a dramatic whisper.

"I'd argue this with you, but you still haven't answered my question. Why didn't you tell me? Drama and goggles or not."

Obito bit his lip as he thought through the answer to that question. "If it makes you feel better, other than the guy I slept with a few months ago, you're the first to know. Well, you and dad."

"That's not an answer."

"Fair enough. I don't know. It wasn't like I thought you would have a problem with it or anything. And I'm not afraid to be out of the closest. I just never felt the urge to say anything about it until I figured it'd be a good way to get father to lighten up on you marrying Rin." He said, shrugging.

"I have been wasting my time for two years trying to find girls for you." Madara told him.

"I know. And I feel bad, but not bad enough to say sorry." Obito said with a grin.

"Okay, but what about Rin? I know you told me you got over her, but weren't you in love with her?" Madara asked.

"I think I wanted to be. Like you said, she's the ideal partner. She's nice, she's a good team mate, and she can tell us apart. If I loved her I wasn't gay, and I knew how father would feel about that. So, I convinced myself I was into her. It took a little while to figure that out, but I eventually did, which is when I told you that I was over her and gave you my full blessing to do whatever it is you two do that I wanted no details on, love or no love." Obito explained.

Kakashi was hard to get a read on. He was friendly, and good enough of a traveling companion, but he still seemed kind of distant, and Obito caught him looking at him when he seemed to think Obito wouldn't notice.

He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that, but since he was doing the same thing, he couldn't really complain. Doing the same thing was how he knew Kakashi was hiding something. Something from Obito specifically. Which had Obito a little suspicious.

He told himself he was just being paranoid, but it was still in the back of his mind. After all, was it really paranoia if you were right?

"So, Mikado, where are you from?" Kakashi asked conversationally.

"A town just a little ways from the Hidden Leaf Village. You might have heard of it since you're from the Leaf. It's called Midiam." Obito replied.

So, maybe it was a bad idea to call Kakashi out on being from the Leaf when he wasn't wearing his headband, but he was hoping to get an explanation.

"You knew that, did you? I guess my reputation precedes me. I should probably use a different name then." Kakashi replied.

"Any reason you don't want people knowing you're a Leaf ninja?"

"None that I can share, no." Kakashi told him, clearly aiming for the topic to be dropped. On a mission then. Maybe that could explain the sense that he was hiding something.

"So, why are you going to the Sand Village?" Kakashi asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

"My brother is living there, last I heard at least, and I'm paying him a surprise visit."

"Might have been better to let him know you were coming. That way he'd be prepared." Kakashi was giving him that same weird look from the bar, and Obito decided that he definitely didn't trust him. Charming and attractive didn't mean trustworthy after all.

"Oh, I would have. It's just that he and his wife are rather interesting about giving their address out. Wouldn't even give it to their own parents. They gave it to me, but I lost my copy, and I have no one to get it from, so I'm just going to find them by memory from when I helped them move." Obito explained, now giving Kakashi the calculating looks.

"Sounds strange."

"That's because they're strange people. They wanted a fresh start, and so they took their opportunity to get one." He said with a shrug.

Obito was considering what to do about this as he spoke. Kakashi was hiding something, and it may have nothing to do with Obito, but the risk was still there since Kakashi was a Leaf ninja. Staying with him could be potentially dangerous, but leaving out of nowhere after agreeing to travel with Kakashi, and having been doing that for a few hours would seem odd and invoke questions.

"Well, good for them. A lot of people looking for a fresh start don't get one."

"Aren't willing to take one, I think is the better wording. A lot of people have too many ties they don't want to cut, and thus they just stay where they are." Obito replied.

He'd been too attached to the Leaf to go with them, and now here he was, leaving because of one of them.

Things might have been easier if he had taken their offer to go with them, instead of playing the grief stricken messenger.

But there was no use focusing on that. All the would, should, and could haves in the world wouldn't change what had happened, and now he just had to deal and try his best to fix it.

"That's a depressing opinion. For the people leaving and the ones around them. The people looking for a new start can't really be close to anyone in this theory and the people being left aren't worth sticking around for."

"Sounds about right. If that weren't the case, why would they leave little to no connections left?"

"You must be fun at parties." Kakashi muttered.

"Oh, I am. I'm a happy drunk, so I'm fun to be around, and I'm usually trying to make people laugh and breaking out in bad dance moves." Obito told him with a laugh. "Maybe someday you'll get to see for yourself."

"Looking forward to it."

He could leave at night, Obito mused. Leave a note saying that he couldn't sleep, so he was going ahead on his own. It was a flimsy excuse, but Kakashi would hopefully be too asleep to find it for a few hours.

"What about you? What are you like at parties?" Obito asked him.

"Don't go to many. Not really my thing."

"I can see that." Obito decided. "Don't take that the wrong way. It's just that you'd have to take off the mask to do shots, and your face would get hot under it anyway with all the people." He added hastely, worried he might have offended Kakashi.

"I wasn't going to take it any kind of way, but thanks for clarifying."

And now Obioto felt awkward. "So, can you tell me why you're going to the sand village?" He asked.

"If I wasn't allowed to tell you that I'm from the Leaf, I don't think I can tell you what I'm doing for the Leaf."

"Probably not, but it was worth a shot." Obito replied.

"Not that I don't trust you. I'm just not allowed to trust you."

"I don't know a lot about ninja, but I get that it's dangerous, so I don't blame you for being cautious." Obito said, shrugging. "We do still hear about the death rates outside of the villages."

"There isn't much to know about them, really. They take missions and protect the villages they live in." Kakashi told him.

"I'm sure it's a bit more than that. I've seen people with headbands walking on water, spitting fire, or messing with people's minds."

"Ninjutsu and ginjutsu. Those are the things you're referring to. We teach those sorts of things to ninja so that they can better protect themselves and the village."

Obito nodded in interest, as if he didn't know these things already. "Sounds like a good system. They learn cool tricks, you get protection."

"Cool tricks? Not sure if that's how I would put it, but essentially, yeah, that's the system." Kakashi said, making a face at Obito's phrasing.

Obito laughed at the face. "Cool tricks: not correct terminology. Got it. Although, if ninja dislike it that much, I might have to keep saying it." Kakashi didn't look too thrilled with Obito's plan, but didn't tell him not to do it.

"Alright, so if people outside the village aren't training or taking missions, what do you do?"

This time it was Obito's turn to give Kakashi a look. "What do you think we do? Sit around all day? Someone has to handle taking care of you people. Farming, fishing, building, making those weapons and scrolls you're so fond of. It doesn't all come from nowhere." Obito told him. "And it's not coming from the villagers." He added.

"I know that. I was referring to your town specifically. Midiam. What are the primary jobs there? What do you do? When you aren't surprise visiting your brother?" Kakashi rephrased.

"We're mostly a manufacturing town. We make weapons for the Leaf village." Obito had been to a few towns outside of the Leaf, but he was pretty sure none of them were actually named Midiam. If there was, he had no idea what they did. He was bullshitting his way through this conversation, and just hoping that he wasn't going to be called on it. "I do the packaging for the weapons to be sent out to you guys." Madara used to tell him that for someone who liked to do the right thing more often than not, he had seriously good lying skills. He was hoping that was true.

It also looked like the sun was getting low, so they'd have to start getting camp set up soon. Obito was pretty sure he was going to stick to his plan of just leaving in the middle of the night with a note left behind. As much as he liked Kakashi, it wasn't safe to stay with him.

"Sounds like a kind of boring job."

"Anything would compared to being a ninja for a living." Obito countered.

"I guess. Do you want to set up camp soon?" Kakashi asked, apparently also noticing the sinking sun.

"Sure. As soon as we find a good spot." He replied.

They found a nice little clearing in the forest, and started setting up, while Obito considered how to best phrase the note that would explain his absence in the morning.