A/N

This doesn't feel like a drabble lmao.

Obito/Ino is my favourite Ino/Akatsuki pairing. Obito himself is a great character!

You can tell this got too long :P

[Ino x Obito] – Seventeen | When I Grow Up

There were many times when he came to Konoha, wondering if people still lived and breathed with his absence. He always made sure not to be seen, but would find himself trailed after a five year old every day. Obito didn't care much to disguise himself with her, for he treated her like a kid who couldn't comprehend the bitter aspects of life.

Imagine his surprise when the same five year old had confessed her cute little crush on him.

He had told her then, that she was far too young for him. He told her a second time that day, annoyed by her persistence, that she could never understand him, especially his worries. She was just a sheltered kid who looked at life through rose coloured lenses.

Ino, however, didn't give up.

She had looked him in his eyes, promising to come back to him when she grew up and had understood the world better. It was a day many years later, when the girl had fulfilled her promise, standing before him when the world turned mad under his siege.

"Obito," Ino had pleaded him. "Please stop this. Many people are dying."

The man had scoffed.

"Still not grown up, I see." He rolled his eyes. "I won't bother explaining anything to you, Ino. You won't understand anyway."

"What?" She frowned. "Am I still just a kid to you?"

He laughed maniacally before shrugging his shoulders.

"Who cares? Kid or not, you still won't understand." Obito started walking away from the girl. "You'll never understand real pain."

"My friend died just now on the battlefield, because of you." Ino bit her lips, preventing herself from choking up. "My sensei died under your indirect orders. My Dad died too. Who are you to say I'll never understand real pain?"

This time, Obito actually bothered to turn around and looked her in the eye.

He grinned. "I admit, maybe you are a little grown up after all. All the more reason to submit to me, Ino. The tsukuyomi is a benevolence bestowed upon you."

She shook her head, scoffing at his stupidity.

"I haven't finished my sentence." Ino's gaze seemed to pierce through him. "There is this one other pain."

He shuddered. It was as though he could see through her eyes, no longer tinted with roses but with dirt. He wondered if he was to be blamed for this.

"I had to watch you die over and over again, losing yourself in a shadow created by Madara."

"How stupid." Obito laughed but she interrupted him again.

"Do you know how it feels to see the one you love die over and over again, haunting your mind endlessly?" This time Ino gave a self-depreciating smile. "Of course you do. Does Rin ring a bell?"

"You know nothing!" He hissed, intending to kill her if she said more.

Ino, however, only looked on at him in silence. When she realised he had no more words for her, she turned away and walked towards the battlefield.

"Your pain is only proof that you're still alive." She muttered softly, hoping he'd hear her out for the last time. "When you're alive, you still have a chance to love another."

"Are you telling me you're no longer in love with me then?" Obito didn't seem to understand her words. "But you just said-"

"I fell in love with Obito, a shadow of Madara's." Ino clenched her fists tightly. "That was stupid on my part. But, I want to fall in love with the regular Uchiha Obito. The one who had his own hopes and dreams to be fulfilled."

And when she left, Obito wondered if he had been the one to have looked at life through rose coloured lenses.