Obito Sensei Chapter 6

The Temple

Obito peered into the dark waters of the lake, his Sharingan idly rotating.

"Well that's ominous," he said dryly.

Naruto laughed. "I'll say," he said. "You think it came out of there?"

The path of destruction left by the undying bear had been easy to follow, a clean road of trampled trees and disturbed earth cut clean through the forest. But this was where the trail ended: on the shores of a large, dark lake. The lake was a messy oval shape, and Team Seven had found themselves on one of the long sides of it. Sakura guessed the opposite shore was about a kilometer away.

She was kneeling, her arms pressed into the water, her hands scrubbing her forearms. The water was dark enough that the blood washing away wasn't noticeable: the color of the lake didn't change. It was also warmer than Sakura would have expected. She'd been prepared for a chill, but instead the temperature was almost pleasant.

"Sakura," Obito said, placing his hand on her shoulder. She looked back at him in surprise. "Take your hands out of there."

She blinked. "Sensei?"

His mouth was a firm line. "I'm serious. And don't get any of the water in your eyes, or your mouth."

"Is something wrong?" she asked, standing up. Her arms were mercifully clean: she'd been unable to ignore the sticky blood staining them the whole way here, resisting the urge to scratch.

"With the water," Obito confirmed. "Sasuke, do you see it?"

The younger Uchiha had been staring at the lake in silence, and he shook his head. "I… don't know." His expression twisted. "It looks like chakra. Almost. But I've never seen anything like it."

"You've never had to," Obito said. "That's natural energy: a lot of it." Naruto gave him a questioning look, and Obito grinned. "It's chakra produced by the earth: rocks, trees, whatever you can think of. You should ask your dad about it. His master specializes in it." The Uchiha's grin disappeared. "But there's way too much for a little lake like this, and there's something off about it. I don't know what would happen if some got into your chakra system, Sakura, so let's just not risk it."

Sakura nodded, suppressing more questions. Why had she never heard of Natural Energy before now? It certainly hadn't been included in the academy curriculum.

"So what could cause something like that?" she asked instead. "Filling a lake with natural energy?"

Obito shrugged. "I have no idea. But if I had to guess, I'd say this might have been what caused our immortal bear. Nature energy can have some very strange effects, and this energy is stranger than most. It's quite possible the bear drank from this lake and ended up…" he searched for the word, crossing his arms. "Infected with something."

"Jeez," Naruto murmured, picking up a rock and tossing it into the water. "So now what?"

"We have to find out what's altering the lake," Sasuke said, and Sakura found herself nodding along.

"It's dangerous," she agreed, and Obito turned to her with an unreadable expression. "This close to the town? If some kid comes out here and swallows some of the water, who knows what could happen?"

"Alright then," Obito said neutrally. "How do you think we could go about that?"

Sasuke frowned, while Sakura went red. "Are you actually asking us," Sasuke asked, "or do you already know the answer?"

"Hey," Obito smiled. "You don't think I'm that kinda guy, do you?"

Naruto grumbled. "We should check the lake, duh." Obito turned towards him. "There might be something in it that's causing this."

"And how could we do that safely?" Obito asked, and Naruto groaned.

"C'mon, we're not babies!" he said, his voice rising a little. Sasuke smirked. "You've got shadow clones: you could use them to scout!"

"Oh, that's a good point!" Obito said, feigning surprise, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh. "You'll make a fine ninja yet, Naruto."

Their sensei put his hands together, forming a series of seals too quickly for Sakura to follow, and there was a burst of smoke. It cleared in moments, and a perfect copy of Obito stood alongside the original, arms crossed in the same manner. Sakura had never seen a Kage Bunshin before. She was familiar with ordinary clones, of course, so seeing her sensei duplicated wasn't especially shocking, but the fact that the shadow clone was physically a perfect copy, capable of autonomous action, still made her…

Not uncomfortable, that was too strong a word. Wary might suit the feeling better.

"Get going," Obito said, and the clone wandered into the water without a sound. It took a deep breath, and dove beneath the surface.

"That's so cool," Naruto said with a grin.

"Mm?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto gestured at the water.

"That jutsu," he said. "It's so damn cool."

"Well, you won't be trying it out anytime soon," Obito said with amusement. "The way you manage your chakra, you'd probably end up killing yourself."

"Is it really that intensive?" Sakura asked, rubbing her arms. The water on them had grown cold in the night air, and goosebumps were rising all along her skin. There was a breeze wafting over the lake, and it brought with it the smell of wet grass and the sound of crickets.

"Each kage bunshin created splits your chakra," Obito said, and Naruto's mouth dropped a little. "If you make three, you've split it four ways between yourself and them: that means you're already down to twenty-five percent of whatever you've molded." He glanced at Sasuke. "Even experienced ninja are careful when using it. It can be easy to forget how much chakra you've expended, especially if you're distracted by a battle or an injury, and you could end up knocking yourself out, or worse, with a sloppy clone."

Sakura looked down. That was another jutsu she'd probably never end up using, then. Her chakra levels were merely average, though Obito had told her her control was excellent. There was no way she could justify using such an exhausting jutsu.

"Huh," Naruto said. "I didn't know that."

"That's what I'm here for," Obito said good-naturedly. "Still, don't let that discourage you: they're great in a pinch, and they make excellent scouts."

He suddenly straightened up, his eyes narrowing. "Speaking of which," he said.

"What did it find?" Sasuke asked, ambling over. He'd been peering into the lake while Obito had been talking about the kage bunshin, his red eyes burning into the water.

"There's a cave at the bottom of the lake," Obito said. "It's got air in it, and a chakra trail. Wherever the energy is coming from, it's somewhere in that cave."

Naruto saw the question in Sakura's eyes before Obito did. "Shadow clones return memories when they get dispelled," he whispered to her, and suddenly everything Obito and the Hokage's son had said about scouting took on a new light in Haruno's mind. A perfect replica that could report back just by dispelling itself? That was incredible.

"Well, how are we going to get down there?" she asked, and Naruto grinned at her. "We can't swim in the water, can we?"

"That's the easy part," he said. "Right, Obito?"

"You shouldn't be so cavalier, you know," Obito said, gesturing them over. "It's not like I do this every day."

"Except for when you want to make a flashy entrance," Sasuke said flatly, and Obito grinned at him.

"Well sure," he admitted, "but who doesn't love a flashy entrance?"

"I don't understand." Sakura said. She felt pushed out once more: the bond between Obito, Naruto, and Sasuke was so obviously much more familiar and deeper than what she had with any of them, despite their efforts. She tried to shove away the lingering thoughts in the back of her mind, whispering that she was the odd one out and always would be, and failed miserably. "What are we doing?"

"The Kamui!" Naruto said with excitement, and Sakura remembered the bell test. Sasuke had mentioned that name then, referring to the jutsu that Obito had used to make Naruto vanish. It must have been one of Obito's techniques: the one that manifested with his Sharingan, and its peculiar pattern.

"Here." Obito stuck out his hand, and after a moment of hesitation Sakura took it. Naruto laid his hand on Obito's forearm, just above her own. Sasuke just pressed his palm to the older Uchiha's side. "Hold on, okay? This is gonna be pretty weird."

Obito closed his left eye, and the Sharingan in his right changed.

The world folded in on itself, and Sakura yelped. For just a second, she was somewhere incredibly cold. There was no breeze, no sound of crickets, nothing: just the sound of her own breathing, and her heartbeat. Panic wormed into her mind. She heard her heartbeat speed up. Where was she?

Then the sensation passed, and she found herself in a damp cave.

"Guh." The Haruno stumbled backwards, sinking to one knee. The solid cold stone under her leg helped her ground herself. She was in a cave: rocks all around. This made sense.

"Ugh," Naruto agreed, falling on his butt. "Every time."

Sasuke remained standing, as did Obito. The younger Uchiha removed his hand from the older. "Give it a second," he said. "You'll be fine." He was talking to her, Sakura realized. Trying to make it look like he cared.

He was right though. Sakura's head swiftly stopped swimming, and before she knew it, she was back on her feet. Whatever jutsu Obito had used, its effects were clearly temporary. She looked around and got a better look at wherever they ended up.

Her initial impressions had been accurate. There wasn't much more to the cave than damp, dark rocks: there was a small grotto of water behind them, most likely the entrance to the lake. Sakura wondered how there could be air down here, as thick and stifling as it was. She'd never known that pockets like this could exist underwater; one more thing she'd learned today.

She could see. That was also unusual. There shouldn't have been any light down here, rendering sight even with chakra enhanced sight all but useless, but instead her eyes were piercing through the gloom with only a little difficulty. They picked up the slick trail of thick liquid snaking along the ground, into the lake, and Sakura blinked. The question of where the miniscule amount of light could be coming from was shoved to the back of her mind. The liquid slipping over the rocks was dark, and it moved far too sluggishly to be water.

"Blood," she blurted out, and her sensei jerked his head towards her. She pointed, knowing the Sharingan probably saw everything down here as though it were day. "Do you see that?"

"Hmm," Sasuke stepped forward, kneeling down next to the tiny stream of blood. Naruto stumbled after him in the dark, while Obito stood back, his arms crossed. Sakura strained to make out his expression; she couldn't read her sensei's face, but his body language was definitely concerned.

"It's got even more of that chakra in it than the lake," Sasuke said, turning back to their teacher. "I think this might be the source."

"You're probably right," Obito grunted. "Wherever it's coming from, it's been feeding into the water."

"We following it then?" Naruto asked, and Obito grimaced.

"Yes," Sakura's sensei said, stepping forward. "But stay behind me, and stick close. I've half a mind to send you all back right now."

'Please do,' said the part of Sakura she'd prefer to listen to. She didn't like this. Mysterious blood trails in the dark, underground; that was asking for trouble, no matter the circumstances.

'Don't you dare,' said the other. 'I've still got to prove myself.'

She wished that voice would shut up.

They slowly proceeded deeper into the cave, and gradually, the amount of light rose. The rocks under their feet were consistently slick, whether with water or liquid Sakura didn't want to think about, but it didn't keep them back. After just a minute of walking, the source of the light came into view.

There was a crack in the wall, just big enough for someone to squeeze through. Warm light slipped through, cast by something out of sight. Obito moved through it first, turning sideways and raising his arms. Naruto followed hastily after, and Sakura after him. The feeling of her shoulders pressing against the cold stone impressed upon her a certain claustrophobia. This place could crush her without even meaning to.

Then she was through the press of stone, with Sasuke close behind her. Sakura stared around in confusion. She hadn't known what to expect, but it certainly hadn't been this.

It was a corridor of smoothly-cut stone, about six feet wide and eight tall; less claustrophobic than the cave, but not by much. There were small depressions cut in the stone every couple feet at about her sensei's head height, out of which spilled bright light; little fires. Sakura could smell the oil fueling them.

"Oh boy," Obito muttered.

It was clear to Sakura this was a base of some sort. Hidden underground, away from prying eyes, and it was the source of whatever had infected the lake. People clearly lived here: what kind, she could only guess.

"Alright," her sensei said, his voice low. "This changes things."

"C'mon," Sasuke said. He pushed back the older Uchiha, and Obito shot him a look of alarm. "We have to see where this goes."

"Sasuke, hold on." Obito took a step after him. "We can't be too hasty."

"He's right though!" Naruto said, following after Sasuke. "C'mon, we can handle this: let's see what's down here!"

Sakura's teammates pushed ahead, leaving her and their sensei behind. With no choice, the both of them followed after. Obito muttered something under his breath that Sakura was sure she wasn't supposed to hear.

"Stupid kids."

She hoped he wasn't talking about her.

The corridor eventually broadened, the walls moving out and the ceiling rising. They came to a crossroad, another path intersecting Team Seven's own. Naruto and Sasuke continued straight ahead; Sakura glanced down both sides of the other corridor, and only saw the same featureless rock as their current path. This place was deceptively large.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Naruto asked, dropping his voice. Sasuke stopped beside him, and Obito's fast walk finally caught the older Uchiha up to the two of them. Sakura was still several paces behind.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, laying his hand on each of the boy's shoulders. They looked up at him in confusion. "I told you to stay behind me."

"So?" Sasuke said. "It's not like being a couple feet ahead of you is going to matter."

Sakura couldn't see her sensei's face, but she could imagine his nostrils flaring. "Listen to me. We're in unknown territory: you have no idea what could be around the next corner. You three are my responsibility, so so long as we're down here you're staying behind me. Just be happy I haven't shoved you into the Kamui yet."

Her teammates didn't respond immediately. Obito must have cowed them. "All right," Naruto eventually said. "We get it. Sorry for that."

"It's fine," Obito said, moving ahead. "Just keep it in mind. And not just for today."

"Hey," Sakura said. Her sensei stopped. "Naruto. What did you hear?"

"You don't hear it too?" Naruto dropped his voice. "Listen."

Sakura did, and after a moment the sound Naruto had noticed solidified at the edge of her perception. She knew her teacher could hear it as well now that he was focusing on it, as well as Sasuke. It was a steady beat, reverberating through the walls, the faintest of echoes. Two syllables, constantly repeated. Sakura couldn't make out the words, but she understood what she was hearing after a second of attentiveness.

Chanting, or something like it. Somewhere down here, a group was chanting.

"It's coming from that direction," Sasuke said, pointing to his right, down the corridor they'd just passed.

"Alright, let's go," Obito said. "But this time…"

"Yeah yeah, we know," Naruto grumbled, falling in behind his teacher. They backtracked, moving down the corridor they'd ignored towards the sound. Sakura grew more and more nervous: moving practically single file like this, they were easy targets. Still, they would see anyone else coming down the corridor at them, obviously, and with Obito in the lead, they didn't really have anything to worry about.

The stone corridor grew broader and taller, until Sakura's claustrophobia quietly receded. But the more space opened up around them, the louder the voices grew. There was more than the single word now, babbling and joyous singing. People were stomping their feet. How many voices were there? More than a dozen, less than twenty. Her ears burned with chakra as she amplified her hearing as much as she could, until every sound was painful.

What were they saying? The echoes rebounding throughout the cave made it impossible to tell.

Obito suddenly held his hand up, and the whole group stopped. He glanced back at them and raised one finger to his lips; his Sharingan was active. Then, he dropped on all fours, crawling forward like a maimed spider. He didn't make a sound, and Sasuke and Naruto followed after him, adopting his pose and scuttling across the ground. Sakura followed them, feeling her fingers dig into the occasional patches of soft stone.

At least there wasn't any blood on the ground here. She didn't want more blood, not after the bear.

The corridor was now wide enough for them to go side by side, and the chanting was louder than ever. Less than fifty feet away, surely. Sakura's heart beat in time with its echo. Suddenly, the corridor twisted, spitting them out onto a wide disk of stone. There was a lip of raised rock on the edge of it, jagged red stalagmites covering the rim. The chanting was coming from just beyond and below them. Obito crawled forward, peering through the stone. Despite herself, Sakura crept up beside him.

Finally, the source of the chanting became obvious.

There were seventeen men and women arrayed in a rough semicircle below, of every size and shape and dressed in seemingly random clothes. Some of them wore thick brown robes, obviously homemade, while others were dressed like mercenaries, wearing iron and kevlar armor and strapped with weapons of every kind. One man even had a poleaxe, propped at his side.

They were all facing a slightly raised altar as they raised their voices as one. That was the only thing Sakura could call it. It was a bulge of crimson stone, covered in candles. In the center of it, there was a pit, maybe four meters wide and two meters long.

Sakura couldn't tell how deep it was. It could have been a meter or a kilometer. The pit was full of blood. Overflowing with blood. Thick, arterial blood so red it was almost black, splashing against the stone and slowly dribbling down the sides of the altar. The whole congregation was standing in almost an inch of the stuff.

Behind the pit, there was a simple idol carved from wood: less than two feet tall, a skeleton that had blades for fingers and toes and no face. Where its face should have been, there was an inverted triangle held inside a circle, carved so deeply into the wood it was almost a hole in the thing's head. The blades were covered in blood too. And behind the idol, there was one more man.

She looked to her left, at Naruto, and the Hokage's son stared back at her, eyes wide. He was scared, she realized. Just as scared as her. They should have turned around.

'What the fuck,' he mouthed, and Sakura felt the insane urge to laugh.

The chant was obvious now, even with the cacophonous singing and stamping that underlaid it. Two syllables, like she'd thought.

JA-SHIN

JA-SHIN

JA-SHIN

Sakura didn't know the word, or the name, or whatever it was, but it made her skin crawl. Her whole body was covered in goosebumps. She looked right, at Obito, and he jerked his head back, not taking his eyes off the congregation thirty feet below them.

'Back.' She could practically hear him in her head. 'Back up, right now.'

She, Naruto, and Sasuke all obeyed at once, creeping back from the ledge, silently crawling backwards.

At least, until Sakura's foot hit something.

JA-SHIN

She spun, the rustle of her shirt against the stone deafening in her ears, and found a woman standing over her. Sakura's foot had bumped into hers; the woman had silently crept up behind them. She was tall and blonde, and wore the clothes of a traveling merchant, the same kind of people who came and went from Paper Hill.

But her teeth were bared in a huge smile that had no humanity in it, her hair was streaked with clotted blood, and in her hands she held a sickle. A very clean sickle.

Sakura forgot to breathe, and the woman's smile widened.

JA-SHIN

"Heeeeeeeey-" she rasped, as though she were on the edge of panting, and then her throat opened up like a ziplock bag.

Obito was already there. Obito had already shoved his short sword through the woman's neck, twisted, and torn it out, removing everything below her chin in a single violent motion. It had happened so fast Sakura had only seen the afterimage. The woman didn't even have time to gag; instead, she just sank like a stone into water, falling into Obito's arms. He gently deposited her to the ground, as though her body were light and silent as a feather.

JA-SHIN

Their teacher pointed back down the corridor, mouthed the words. "Go."

Naruto took a step forward, and the woman's eyes opened. Obito was cradling the body, looking at Naruto. But it wasn't a body, Sakura realized.

Somehow, the woman was still alive.

She flailed, hurling her sickle at Naruto, and the boy gagged and ducked backwards, the tool barely clearing his forehead. Obito's eyes went wide and he struck the woman once again, stabbing his sword up through her empty neck and out the top of her head. Still, impossibly, the body flailed, scratching at him and trying to break free. The woman's eyes were wide and insane and-

Filled with joy.

JA-SHIN

Obito gave up on the sword and broke the woman's neck with a single violent jerk, and her flailing ceased.

The sickle hit one of the stalagmites ringing the lookout point, and produced a sharp, clear ring.

The chanting stopped, and Sakura's heart did alongside it.

They all froze, not even daring to breath. There was muttering from below. Feet and tools scuffing along the ground.

"What was that?" a man asked. It was a distant voice; the man behind the altar. "Hey, what the fuck was that?"

The muttering grew louder. "Hey!" the man yelled again. "Do we have any unwelcome assholes up there?!"

"Run," Obito muttered. He glanced at them, and Sakura realized she wasn't alone; both Naruto and Sasuke were too scared to move. They were all covered in a cold sweat. This wasn't supposed to be what their first mission outside the village would be like. They were supposed to have it together by now. She should have had it-

"Run-!"

There was a light tap, and they all turned as one. One of the men from below had jumped to the wall across from them, above the altar. The same one who'd been standing behind it, speaking before. He was a short, thin man with grey hair and amber eyes, and he was holding a long scythe with a red blade. Even stranger, the only thing he was wearing was a pure white kimono, so bright it hurt to look at.

He was standing on the side of the wall. Standing horizontally, staring at them. He was a ninja, Sakura belatedly realized. Or at least, he'd been trained in using chakra. That made everything even worse.

"Wow!" The man laughed. Sakura started backing up. "There's some dumb fucks up here!" He looked down at the hidden crowd. "Hey, morons! There's some dumb fucking ninjas up there!" He laughed again, and Obito got in between them and the man.

The man in white smiled. "That's perfect, huh? Grab them!"

###

AN

Nowadays, I don't bother with many author notes. Not sure why, but it's a habit I fell out of. But in this case, I find it a lot more necessary. If you read Obito-Sensei all the way back in 2015 and think this is an April Fool's joke; it's not. It's back. I'm really sorry for the wait. And if you're a brand new reader, welcome. Hope you enjoy the ride.

Serendipity, out.