Chapter 4

"Obito, I wanted to know if you'd be willing to help Rin and I with something." Madara said almost as soon as Obito walked into their shared apartment from the latest mission he'd been on.

"Um, sure. Yeah, of course. Can it wait until I've had a shower though?" He asked, a little surprised by the questions. Madara didn't often ask for his help after all.

"Go for it. It's not something you have to do right now. Or have to do at all. But it'd be really great if you did."

Marara wasn't one to nervously ramble, so this was kind of strange. "Alright, well now I'm curious. What is it you guys need?" H asked, leaning against their kitchen counter after getting a bottled water out of the fridge.

"We want to leave the Leaf Village." Well, that certainly caught Obito's attention. "Father is trying to start trouble about Rin and I again, and talking about me becoming head of the clan. It would just make things easier if we left." Madara explained.

"You guys are eighteen. He can't control you." Obito said.

"In theory that's true, but it's stressing both of us out, and there is a rumor that they plan to have Rin killed so that I'll comply."

Obito's eyes widened at the information. Madara, despite having left with Obito, was a great choice for head of the clan. The closest anyone had come to being as powerful as him was Itachi, and Itachi was still rather young. But murder? Well, it was certainly an effective way to get one's point across. "So, why do you guys need me?" He inquired.

"Because if they're willing to hurt her, we have to make sure they think they can't. We want them to think that we're dead." Madara told him.

"You want them to – you want help faking your own death? Don't you think that's over doing it a little?" Obito asked, sounding unsure as he spoke.

"Probably, but better safe than sorry. I don't want to risk her getting hurt."

Obito still thought this was a bit much, but nodded any way. He wanted them safe and happy, and if this was how they wanted to go about it, he was willing to help out. "I'm still not sure what you need from me."

"To spread the word of our death. The three of us can go on a mission and you'll be the one to come back." Madara told him. "Also, if you could get ordained before this, Rin and I have discussed it and we would like you to be the one to marry us."

Obito smiled a bit at his brother. "I can do that last bit easy enough. It's going to be convincing people you're dead without bodies that will be the hard part." He was already thinking through how to work that out. Although, with how dangerous the ninja world was, people couldn't always bring bodies back. He was just worried that he wouldn't be convincing enough.

"You're a good liar. You'll do just fine at convincing people that we died." Madara said, rolling his eyes at the mere notion that Obito wouldn't be able to do that.

"Probably. So, when are we doing this?"

"The next mission outside of the Leaf." Madara replied, and already he looked more relaxed than he had in years, just knowing that he and Rin were getting out. That's what decided it for Obito. He was doing the right thing by helping them. Even if he would be saddening some people of the village by saying that Rin and Madara were dead. It was better than if something were to actually happen to them.

The crescent moon was high up in the sky, surrounded by the stars up there with it as Obito got up to leave. He rolled up his sleeping bag and went to get his bag to put it away.

He opened up the bag to get out his goggles before putting the sleeping bag away.

It wasn't hard to figure out that he had the wrong bag once he looked inside.

"Steve." He whispered as he saw the hound mask in Kakashi's bag.

"And I was so hoping you wouldn't see that." He heard from behind him, and now he knew why his voice had been familiar. He'd heard it from Steve, who was actually Kakashi, when he was trying to arrest him.

"We weren't going to the Sand Village, I'm guessing, but what was your plan when we got close enough to the Leaf with your little 'short cut'," He said the words like they were curses with a slight sneer. "for me to recognize where we were actually going?" He got to his feet as red took over his eyes, turning to face Kakashi.

"Cross that bridge when I got there. So, care to share with the class why you killed your family?"

They were both waiting for the other to make the first move.

"I didn't." He replied, slowly reaching for his bag. Actually his this time. He wasn't about to make that mistake again, even if he had been quite helpful to do so the first time.

As soon as his hand got near the bag a kunai was flying at him.

Obito jumped back to avoid the knife, grabbing a low tree branch while he was jumping. He used it to swing himself into a crouched position on the tree limb. As he felt the burn from scraping his palms on the bark he missed his fingerless gloves. But he didn't have time to be concerned with that.

"My brother. I told you about how he left, I just didn't mention that he did so by pretending to die." Obito said, trying to get Kakashi to believe him. He didn't want to fight him after all.

Kakashi didn't answer him. He simply started running at him. And this was certainly the lightning ninja he'd heard about if the electricity emitting from his hand was anything to go by.

"I can prove it!" Obito insisted as he lept out of the tree, over Kakashi, and landed behind him. "Please don't make me fight with you. Just listen to me." He said in a pleading tone.

Kakashi whirled around to face him, lightning still crackling in his hand, but he wasn't charging him at least.

"I know you have no reason to believe me. I'm the one who came back from that damn mission pronouncing my team mates dead. But think about this: if I were really willing to kill my entire family, wouldn't I have attacked you by now?"

Kakashi gave him a long calculating look, but eventually the lightning vanished. "You have one shot at giving me a reason to not drag you back to the Leaf right now." He said eventually, narrowed eyes watching Obito for any sign that he would make a run for it.