I do not own Naruto.


say so

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The first time he sees her, he decides he doesn't like her.

Uchiha Obito is six and it's his first year attending the Academy, and Kakashi pisses him off. He constantly hovers around the Sandaime's youngest child and sometimes he acts like one of the Inuzuka shinobi.

Obito keeps that information to himself.

Sarutobi Chiyuki is a girl with far too intelligent eyes and he doesn't like it. She looks at the world as if she understands it all and it doesn't sit right with him. People around him whisper she and Kakashi are geniuses, and he hides tears of frustration because life isn't fair.

Why does he have to try so hard only to get to half of where they are?

The Sarutobi Princess makes quick friends with Rin and he likes her even less. They smile and giggle together and he wishes he could take Rin away before she starts acting like Kakashi.

She never does, to his immense relief.

His teachers whisper about Chiyuki and Kakashi graduating earlier, because it's a waste to let them attend the rest of the Academy curriculum. He goes home that day-

-empty, empty-

-and punches all of his frustration out on a training dummy, not caring about form or accuracy.

One day Obito sees Chiyuki's mother for the first time. He watches as the previously bright child wilts under her mother's gaze, eyes downwards and shoulders hunched in.

He watches and he wonders.

The war comes and they're shuffled into teams. He and Kakashi get along as well as a house on fire. Everyday he goes back home-

-empty, why-

-and bitterly wonders what's so great about Kakashi.

Until one day the boy growls at him, and he remembers how he sometimes acts just like the Inuzuka shinobi do, and maybe he's a little more confused than he was before, but now his Uncle knows he got in trouble and Obito's sure he's gonna get a scolding from the elders again-

But he doesn't.

Uncle Fugaku calmly sits him down and asks exactly what happened. After the whole story is out of his mouth quicker than a Fire Ball jutsu, the man in front of him merely advises him.

"The Hatake boy will get better. More importantly, watch and learn from this experience. Don't make Chiyuki-hime your enemy."

Why, Obito'd asked.

"To serve the village is to serve the hokage, and the Uchiha clan does both with pride. She might wear the hat one day, and when that time comes you'll have to ask yourself if you're willing to give yourself."

His own Uncle had ignored Obito's wishes to be hokage himself, and it hurt more than he'd expected it to.

Nevertheless, he does learn from the experience and he observes.

The Uchiha boy sees her display a thousand emotions in one single day. He watches her sharp eyes as they take in everything and catalog things in her bright mind. He's there when she falls, and she falls many times. Chiyuki grows and Obito grows alongside her, and he realizes she's not nearly as perfect as he once thought she was.

She talks about things he doesn't initially understand. She discusses economy, politics, sociology, and his head is reeling. Obito doesn't know half the terms she mentions and it brings shame to him at the same time cold realization shakes him.

What does it mean, to be hokage?

He wants people to look at him with respect, to really look at him with pride in their eyes. For once, he wants to not be labeled as the black sheep of his family.

With his sharingan, he watches and watches.

Obito watches his Uncle, Chiyuki, Kakashi, Rin, Minato, Kushina, his clan. He watches it all and one day when he's nine years old he realizes he might've gone about it wrong this whole time.

One day she looks at him and says she's sorry he awakened his sharingan.

(One day, his house isn't empty.)

She looks him in the eye and states, with all the conviction in the world, that he'll be one of the strongest ninjas ever.

(His house is his heart.)

And he believes her. Chiyuki speaks as if she knows the entire truth of the universe, and he believes her.

(His house is his heart, and he's got plenty of room.)