DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

Howdy all. Glad to see that most of you are enjoying the story so far! We've already passed 1500 views and while that's not the greatest of milestones, it's still something. Glad to see that my dark version of Obito is getting some love. Anyways, read, review, and as always, enjoy!

Chapter 6 - C-Ranks and Reconciliation

It's funny how two people that were trained under the same sensei could have such different routines, but Rin supposed that it made sense, given their severed relationship. She'd kept an eye on Obito over the years, even if the Uchiha clearly wanted nothing to do with her. Every time he seemed to lay eyes on her, he was reminded of Kakashi all over again.

Obito's morning routine consisted of rolling out, throwing in clothes, and arriving inexcusably late to everything. Rin had maintained discipline in her life, befitting a shinobi. At least once a week, she would pay a visit to the memorial stone of the Third Great Ninja War, dropping off flowers for her lost classmates. All that remained of that group was a measly seven, not counting Kakashi.

While Rin believed that Kakashi still had some good in him, she couldn't argue that he was a criminal. She simply thought that swearing to kill Kakashi was a little too far, especially for such a kind soul like Obito. Yet to her horror, that once kind soul had been stained with blood and shrouded in darkness until it was no longer recognizable.

Some days, when she would catch a glimpse of Obito, or see him in a meeting, he looked like a Nara was possessing his body. Gone were his kind eyes and wide smile, replaced by the cold visage of the sharingan and a permanent scowl. His once great and proud posture had been reduced to slumped shoulders and hands in pockets, a bowed head when he walked.

It always broke Rin's heart when she saw Obito like that, but she could never work up the courage to speak to him. She always opted for an outgoing and gushing personality to try and cheer him up, but it was clear that he wasn't getting the message that she wanted to make up with him. In her mind, the argument had been over for years, it was just stubborn pride that kept it going. Though she supposed that Obito wouldn't arrive to that conclusion on his own, so she would have to extend the first peace offering. Minato had said as much.

She'd gone to visit her old sensei that morning, and had confessed her worries about Obito, a sentiment shared by the Hokage. Minato had told her of the conversation that had taken place when he visited Obito the night before. It was then that Rin knew that she would have to make the first move. Both were worried about their friend, as the grudges and pain he carried were going to get him killed.

A pair of fingers snapping in front of her face tore her out of her thoughts. "Rin-sensei?"

She looked down with wide eyes to see her three Genin, Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino. They looked at her with expectant expressions. "How was that?" Ino asked innocently.

Rin blinked, remembering that she'd asked her students to complete an exercise, but she had completely missed their runthrough because of her spacing out over her old friend. "Um, let's see it one more time, okay?"

Shikamaru crossed his arms and looked at her pointedly. "Judging by that look on your face, you didn't see it at all, did you?"

"Guess there's no slipping anything past a Nara, is there?" she asked with an amused sigh. "I'm sorry, I was distracted. Let's just see it again, okay?"

"You know, you should really go talk to him," Ino said as she played with her ponytail absentmindedly.

Rin looked startled by the blonde's words. "What?"

"Whoever it is you were thinking about. Clearly you're having problems or something," Ino said matter-of-factly.

Rin shook her head and gave out a small laugh to try and cover her tracks. "Oh no, Ino, it's not like that."

Ino laughed, glancing over to Shikamaru, who nodded as well. "Even I can see it. You're hung up over something and it's distracting you. I'm sure we can afford to take the day off while you sort this out."

Rin was amazed at the observational skills of these two. Even if Choji had none, since he was absorbed in his bag of potato chips, the other two were something else. Though she supposed she should have expected it from Ino, seeing how she was the Yamanaka heiress and practically lived for gossip. Maybe her two students were right, after all.

Rin smiled softly. "Maybe I will, but let's focus for now, okay? You guys are my new team, after all. It wouldn't look good if I went easy on you after only a week of training."

The rest of the afternoon, Rin threw herself into training with her students, never once letting her mind wander other than to set a specific time in which she would confront Obito. To say she dreaded it would be an understatement.

There weren't very many things Obito was prideful about these days, but his nickname was one of them. He used it at every opportunity, which of course meant during Tora capture missions.

"Fire Storm to underlings, does anyone have a visual on the target, over?"

"This is Squints, I target is ten meters to my east, over." That was Naruto. Obito thought the nickname was appropriate. After all, naruto did in fact squint whenever he was yelling or confused by something.

"This is Matchstick, wait for me to get into position, over." Obito liked to constantly tease Sasuke about the small size of his Fireball jutsu, so he thought Matchstick would be a nice jab at the kid.

"This is Pinky, I'm in position, over." Sakura, for obvious reasons.

Obito sat in a tree directly above Tora. From his vantage point, he could see the three Genin arrayed in a loose triangle formation, with Naruto the closest. "Go!"

At Obito's signal, the blonde burst from the bushes and dove on top of the cat. Two shadow clones ran out of the undergrowth as well and joined in, acting as insurance to make sure that the cat didn't escape from their original. Sasuke and Sakura took up positions on either side of the ensuing brawl, ready to bolt in either direction.

There turned out to be no need, as Naruto's clones poofed out of existence, leaving the original Naruto holding Tora proudly by the sides. Drops of blood leaked from the numerous scratches on his face, but he didn't seem to care.

Obito dropped down out of the tree above them, startling Naruto to the point where Tora flew from his grasp. Luckily, Sasuke grabbed the animal by the scruff of its neck before it even touched the ground, denying it the chance to escape a second time.

Naruto looked up to Obito in mock anger. "Big Bro! You almost made us have to catch that thing again!"

Obito regarded the blonde with the disapproving gaze of his sharingan. "You should have known I was there. And how many times to I have to tell you to call me sensei?"

Naruto stood to his feet with a grin on his face. "As many times as it takes!"

"Whatever, just get back to the tower and turn that thing in. I'll file the report in the morning," Obito said with a bored yawn.

He'd been avoiding Minato for the past week, ever since their midnight conversation. He'd even been turning in mission reports to his assistant before Minato ever arrived to work in the mornings. If anything, a nice C-rank mission that would take him out of the village for a few days had great appeal, but he still didn't know if his Genin were mature enough yet.

They seemed to have taken what he said about teamwork to heart. Sakura had instantly been included in their off-duty meetups. He'd even observed the three of them laughing together at Ichiraku Ramen, but he had yet to see them in an actual combat scenario. There was no guarantee that they wouldn't repeat their previous actions and let her fend for herself.

Feeling his stomach grumble, Obito dismissed his three Genin, telling them that if they lost Tora a second time, they would have to catch it without his help. Then, he used his silent footsteps to make his way back to his apartment. He felt like being alone today.

Darkness had already settled in when Rin finally worked up the courage to make her way to Obito's apartment. She'd always known where he lived, but she had never visited him, mostly due to the fact that they hadn't spoken for the last decade plus. He'd managed to find this apartment after the Uchiha Rebellion. Itachi and Sasuke also lived in the building, but they had their own apartment, and were on a separate floor.

As Rin ascended the staircase that led to the second floor, where Obito's apartment was, she felt a pang of nervousness and fear drop into the pit of her stomach. If she was being honest with herself, she had no clue how Obito would react. She suspected anger and a lack of acceptance, but she couldn't be sure with such a broken soul like Obito.

She definitely wanted to reconnect with her teammate, that much she was sure of. She'd lost her best friend the day that she'd tried to defend Kakashi, even if she was misunderstood. She'd tried to broach the subject again after they found evidence of Kakashi's underhanded murder of Shisui, but Obito wasn't exactly in the right state of mind then, either. He'd just killed his parents, so in hindsight, talking about it then was the worst possible moment in which to do it.

Rin let out a breath to steady herself as she raised her hand to knock on the door. As her knuckles rapped on the surface, it was almost like she could feel a malevolent presence working its way towards her from on the other side.

It was late, so Rin wasn't surprised when she saw a shirtless Obito on the other side of the threshold when the door swung open. He looked to be getting ready for bed. What Rin didn't expect was for the door to be slammed shut right in her face in a matter of less than a second.

She thought of leaving it at that, but being the kind-natured person she is, she knocked again. When Obito never answered, Rin huffed in irritation. She hadn't heard the door lock again when Obito had closed it, so she placed her hand on the handle and turned it. The door swung open to reveal a dark apartment aside from a single lamp that lit up the living room.

Black seemed to be the color for the apartment, aside from the dark grey walls. The kitchen counters were black, the furniture was black, even the coffee mug that was in Obito's hands. She lightly stepped inside and closed it behind her to take in the rest of the apartment. It was nothing like she expected, or hoped to see.

Obito used to be so cheerful and disorganized that she half expected a month's worth of clothes to be strewn about on the floor. Imagine her expression when she discovered not a single speck of dust in the pristine apartment.

Obito was leaning against his counter, coffee mug raised to his lips with his right hand as his left was in the pocket of his pants. He looked at Rin with a seemingly neutral expression, but it felt like he was trying to hold back the storm of his emotions. Rin found it hard to tell with the sharingan trained on her. It seemed that not even the comfort of his own apartment would get Obito to release the dojutsu.

The Uchiha looked to be waiting for Rin to speak, so she cleared her throat. "Um, hey."

Obito regarded her with the same gaze. Rin knew that a simple greeting wouldn't be enough to pry his lips open, that much was evident by his demeanor.

"I talked with sensei," she elaborated, moving around to the other side of the counter. "I thought it was time that we talked."

"We have nothing to talk about."

Those six words were like a knife between the ribs for Rin. She hadn't realized how deeply she'd hurt Obito until that exact moment. Sure, she thought he was suffering like she was, but she finally realized what had really transpired in his mind. Rin was the only friend that he thought he truly had left after Kakashi abandoned them. When she defended the traitor, it was like she was betraying Obito, too.

Her eyes wandered as she searched for her next words. She found herself studying his physique, which had certainly matured over the years. Lean muscles born of hard work and activity covered his frame, rippling with each small movement. Scars of varying definement were dotted across his chest and abdomen, remnants of the war. She even remembered working personally on a few of them. Obito noticed her staring, but made no motion, as he was genuinely curious as to what she was going to say.

"I suppose that beating around the bush isn't going to get us anywhere," Rin said as her eyes traveled back up to meet Obito's. "I just...we have to work this out."

Obito would have laughed, but that would have meant smiling for the first time in years, so he opted for a quiet scoff that seemed as loud as a cannon. "You feeling guilty or something? If you're here to try an tell me how to live my life, then I'll tell you what I told sensei. The old Obito is dead. You're never gonna see him again, so if that's what you're here for, then just get out."

Rin felt conflicted. Obito had just spoken more words than she'd heard him speak around her in years, and all they did was confirm her worst fears. She sighed quietly, but made no move towards the door. If anything, her pride wouldn't allow him the satisfaction of getting her to leave so easily. She knew that what Obito was saying wasn't true, but it was still a slap in the face. The old Obito had retreated so far within his morbid shell that there was a chance that he'd never be seen again.

"I'm not leaving," Rin said quietly, with a hint of defiance.

Obito's eyes finally blazed in anger for the first time, a look that she'd grown accustomed to seeing over the years. It had been directed her was many times, even if no words accompanied it. It often made her shiver, but she never realized exactly how much until now.

Obito was fully aware of the fact that he was causing her discomfort, maybe even a little fear, but he didn't really care. She'd come here of her own free will, after all. She hadn't even been invited into the apartment in the first place.

"Then say your bit and get the hell out, I'm taking my students on their first C-rank tomorrow," Obito's angry eyes never left Rin's.

She'd hoped to have an actual conversation, but she supposed that a one-sided one was a first step. At least he was allowing her presence in the first place. She sighed again, combing a hand through her brown hair that now ran down to the middle of her back.

"We...I...miss you, Obito. You've grown so distant that I barely recognize you anymore," Rin said, finally growing emotional. "I know that after Kakashi, you needed a friend, and I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you. I want you to know that just because I believe Kakashi has some good left in him, doesn't mean that I don't think he should be held accountable for his crimes."

When Obito didn't respond, Rin took a breath and continued. "I know that things have been rough for you, and I'm sorry that I wasn't there to help you through any of them. I should have realized that you thought I betrayed you. Words can't express how sorry that I am. Sensei and I are just worried about you. We want the old Obito back."

Obito let out a harsh chuckle, without the accompanying smile. "And what? You think that some apology fifteen years too late is suddenly going to make me smile and go back to being best friends with you? Do you even realize what you did to me? You weren't just my best friend, Rin, I was in love with you. But you were in love with Kakashi, so you didn't see it," by this point, Obito's voice had risen to a yell. "You sided against me with that traitor after he almost fucking killed you. I'll never forgive him for that, never!"

By the end of Obito's outburst, the pattern of his eyes had changed. Rin gasped when she saw it, recognizing it as the Mangekyou sharingan. She'd seen it once on the day of the Uchiha Rebellion, but hadn't seen it since. She remembered that the pattern had looked like three black scythes orbiting a red pupil, but something was different about them now. They still sported the three scythes, but they were blood red, and orbited a black pupil. The rest of the eye was also black. Somehow, the colors had been reversed, and it made Rin curious.

"Obito, why do your eyes look different?" she asked, voice so low that it was almost a whisper.

Obito's eyes widened as he realized what she meant, and he quickly deactivated them, returning to the normal sharingan, which still blazed with anger, though it seemed more under control now.

The Uchiha placed his hands on the counter in front of him and leaned over, bowing his head so that Rin couldn't see his face. She could see every breath as his shoulders heaved, trying to calm himself.

Her eyes softened as she remembered the bombshell that Obito had dropped. Was he really in love with her? How had she been so blind? Did sensei know? Did their friends know? Was he still in love with her?

Obito finally raised his head, dragging Rin from the million questions rocketing around her brain. "Do you still love him?" he asked, pain seeming to drip from his every word.

Rin opened her mouth to deny it, but she quickly closed it when she discovered that she didn't know the answer. The hesitation was all that Obito needed to see. He straightened and walked around the counter. He didn't even glance her direction as he made his way to his room. The door closed quietly behind him, leaving Rin alone in his dark kitchen.

She wanted to barge into his room and state that their conversation wasn't over, but that would destroy any hope that they had left of making up. Instead, she collected what progress she had made and closed the door behind her on her way out. Tears of sadness and regret spilled down her cheeks as she made her way out of the building.

"Come on!" Naruto complained impatiently.

He and his two teammates had been waiting outside the Hokage's tower for several hours, and no sign of their sensei. Sasuke smirked in amusement at the blonde's distress. Naruto did not do well sitting still, which would be the reason that he was twirling a kunai around in his fingers.

Sakura sat off to the side, her back pressed against the brick of the large building. "Just face it, Naruto. Two hours late is early for Obito-sensei."

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted. "I should have sent a shadow clone to wake his lazy ass up."

Sasuke shook his head at that. "Definitely not. I don't plan on spending another minute bent over in a rice paddy, thank you."

"So you think we'll finally get an awesome S-rank mission?!" Naruto gasped, shooting to his feet in excitement.

Sakura facepalmed at the stupidity other teammate. "You moron. We'll be lucky if we get a C-rank anytime this month."

As if on queue, Obito walked through the gate that led to the courtyard of the Hokage's tower. He never stopped his strides, but he did turn his head to look at his three students. They knew that he was telling them to follow, but he seemed off. By more than usual.

When they were finally all standing in a line in front of Minato, Sasuke took the chance to glance upwards at his cousin. Obito looked even angrier than usual. His sharingan looked like they could melt steel just with a simple glare. The younger Uchiha decided not to even ask, as the conversation would not turn out well.

Minato was currently flipping through a list of available missions, looking for one to assign them. "Let's see, I have several D-ranks that would be-"

"C-rank," Obito interjected.

Minato looked up with a raised eyebrow. Obito shrugged. "They're ready. More or less."

Minato nodded, trusting Obito's judgement on the matter. He did, however, shoot his son a warning glare, as Naruto looked far too giddy for his own good. Minato motioned to one of the Anbu that stood at the back of the room.

"Bring him in," Minato said before looking back to Obito. "You're all in luck. I have a C-rank that leaves today. It's yours, but you'd better be at the main gate in one hour."

A loud belch caused the three Genin to whirl around. A tall, elder man with a bottle of sake in his hand entered the room. He wore a wide-brimmed straw hat, and his dark brown vest was worn and frayed. His skin was tanned and rough, showing that this man knew the definition of hard work.

"Team 7, meet Tazuna. He is a bridge builder that needs escorting to the Land of Waves," Minato detailed.

Tazuna regarded the three brats in front of him with harsh eyes. "I paid for ninja, not you brats. Seriously, kid, you look like you could fit in my backpack."

Naruto took great offense to that. He was very self-conscious about his height, something that Minato assured would come in time. Both of his parents had been tall, so he had no idea why he was so short at this age.

"Who the heck do you think you are?!" the blonde demanded. "We can throw down right here, old man!"

"Naruto!" Minato reprimanded harshly.

Tazuna snickered down at the three Genin, his judgemental gaze only rising when Obito turned around. The bridge builder went white with fear when he saw the cold, emotionless red eyes that were on full display. He nodded to Obito, recognizing that this man was indeed a skilled ninja.

Obito returned the simple nod, a gesture from bodyguard to client. The Uchiha then looked down to his three Genin and jerked his head toward the door. They nodded simultaneously and took off to pack their bags.

Obito couldn't help but mull over his conversation with Rin the previous night as they walked. He enjoyed the time with his own thoughts, he just hated sleeping. Sleep was when the nightmares would hit. But the comfort of his own mind was something that he enjoyed.

Except on occasions like this, when he had to actively think about things. Whether she knew it or not, Rin had given him a lot to think about. He cursed himself for always having a soft spot for her, even if he was still utterly pissed at her.

Deep down, he knew that Minato and Rin were right. He hadn't been himself. The problem was, he didn't even know how to be himself anymore. The traumatising events that had led up to the present had seen to that. It was all he could do to keep some semblance of an orderly life together, if only for the sake of the few people that still actively cared about him.

"Aw yeah! First mission out of the village, I'm ready to kick some bandit ass!" Naruto proclaimed, pointing to the sky as they walked.

Obito then realized that this was the first time that any of his Genin had been out of the village. Naruto for obvious reasons, the same for Sasuke. And Sakura was civilian-born, so her comings and goings would have been regulated based on what kind of job her parents had.

"Would ya keep it down, kid? You're giving me a headache," Tazuna complained.

"Maybe if you didn't drink so early int he morning you wouldn't have that problem," Sasuke muttered, but Tazuna heard it.

"Oi! What'd you say, you brat?!"

Sakura had to stifle her giggles as she walked next to Sasuke. Naruto, as boisterous as ever, took point, with Tazuna behind him. Obito brought up the rear. The Uchiha had been too busy buried in the confines of his own mind to pay attention to the banter between his students and their client, at least until something caught his attention.

He recognized it immediately, but he decided to wait it out to see what happens. There were a number of ways that this could go down, so Obito chose to be cautious, activating a countermeasure. He waited for several seconds until he heard the telltale clatter of chains behind him.

The four in front of him all whipped around at the sound, their eyes wide with realization. "Sensei, watch out!" Sakura cried.

A jagged chain that connected two claw-like gauntlets that were situated on the left and right arms of two shinobi cut right through Obito. To his three Genin and Tazuna, it looked like Obito had been cut completely in half.

Obito responded simply by bringing a hand to his mouth and yawning. The chain-wielding shinobi looked back with utter disbelief. They charged once again, and the same result occurred, with the chain passing through Obito's body. A third attempt resulted the same, and the two shinobi had evidently decided to give up.

They turned away from Obito and made a beeline for Tazuna, who began to backpedal slowly away from the incoming attack. Naruto and Sasuke leapt into action, though. Sasuke's sharingan flared to life as he thrust a kunai against one of the enemies' gauntlets, Naruto doing the same to the other. Sakura whipped out a kunai of her own and grabbed the bridge builder, placing herself between the enemy ninja and him.

Obito walked lazily towards them as two clones of Naruto sucker punched the enemy ninja in the back of their heads, dropping them like sacks of potatoes. Obito nodded to his three students with approval. "Good work."

"Are you kidding?!"

"That was a test?!"

Naruto and Sakura yelled at Obito, who silenced them with a single raised hand. "That was not a test. Did you two even see their headbands? They're from Kiri, not Konoha."

"So why didn't you step in and help your students?" Tazuna eyed Obito suspiciously.

The sharingan user rolled his eyes. "Because I was observing the enemy. I had full confidence in their abilities. All three of you reacted perfectly, by the way. Seamless teamwork."

The three Genin had a mixture of smirks and grins until they saw Obito's eyes. Gone was the normal pattern of the sharingan. It had been replaced by three blood red scythes on a black field.

"Obito, what are those?" Sasuke asked, his own sharingan studying his sensei.

Obito shook his head. "I'm the wrong person to have this conversation. Itachi is the one you need to speak to about this. Just know that it is still the sharingan."

He deactivated the Mangekyou and looked his three Genin up and down with the traditional sharingan. "Now, what did we learn?"

"What?" Naruto was confused.

"Learn?" Sakura asked.

Obito sighed. "Sasuke, tie them up, please," the elder Uchiha gestured to their captives.

As Sasuke complied, dragging the pair over to a nearby tree, Obito turned to Tazuna. "These aren't simple bandits. These are trained assassins. This is not a C-rank mission. You have some explaining to do."

"Oh," Naruto and Sakura chorused.

So what do you guys think of Obito's Eternal Mangekyou? I know that the two patterns of both eyes are supposed to combine to make the EMS pattern, but frankly, that would be too hard to explain, so I just reversed the colors. Honestly, the inverted colors make it seem much scarier, at least in my mind. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed, and feel free to leave your thoughts in a review!