Naruto x Digimon
Alive - Team Minato's Digidestined
Chapter 15
Originally Written: Wednesday, January 25, 2023 447PM to 525PM
A/N: Apparently I've been typing so much on this computer that my keyboard is starting to double type letters. Please, let me know if Google Docs and/or myself miss any spelling mistakes.
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Time continued on, despite Team Seven and Gai's concerns. Minato dragged Team Seven out on missions, while he tried to hide his obvious disappointment in Rin. Obito was released from the hospital, left to travel around for short distances via either someone carrying him, or a wheelchair he didn't like using. The device reminded him of all the things he couldn't do any longer.
He made his decision, and declared to Naginata that he didn't want to lose his strength in what remained of his legs. So he returned two to three times a week for physical therapy. Sometimes it was once, but that depended on how badly Konoha's medical staff were needed for other things that week. When he wasn't able to exercise at the hospital, he took time to do so with his clan.
Other Uchiha, individuals up in age who were forgotten once they lost their use to the clan. Those around his grandmother's age told him stories of Madara Uchiha who took time out of his day and his plans to make sure that his clan members were all safe and whole every day. Even if he had to send a clone in his place. Fugaku was no Madara, but he was certainly trying to maintain the man's better routines and practices.
Occasionally, Obito asked why what happened between Madara and Hashirama Senju occurred. If they caught him asking, they'd give him the standard textbook explanation, alongside a condescending look Obito was frequently used to seeing both in and outside the clan. One that either meant they thought he was stupid, or he was asking or saying something he shouldn't be. In his defiance, Obito treated asking like one of his pranks of old. Sometimes, they were distracted. In those moments they didn't say anything to him. Before Kanabi bridge, he would have thought they were ignoring him.
Obito learned to stop asking. He needed his legs and shinobi skills to learn the answer. He determined that much. He was a civilian now, and neither Konoha, nor the Uchiha Clan had any use for an Uchiha that was a civilian, certainly not in the middle of a war.
He turned his focus elsewhere. He traveled around Konoha at a snail's pace in his wheelchair. His tired arms strained to wheel him around, but with time, his arms built their strength up. The sun rested in his lap, and Obito ignored anyone who dared to comment on a thirteen year old in a wheelchair still holding onto stuffed animals. Before Kannabi bridge, he would have jeered and laughed and taunted just the same. The guise of a tough guy in a weakling's body. He didn't desire such things anymore. He didn't know what he did desire, but it wasn't that.
He was slower at it now, but he still helped forgotten elderly grandmothers and grandfathers with their groceries. The handles of his wheelchair served as good handles to hang their grocery bags on, and as an alternative to their crude walkers and canes. Obito rolled so slowly, that they never had to worry about his chair slipping out from under them. Obito wished he was smarter, then he'd make better wheelchairs and walkers for all those who needed them. Did he need his legs for that?
He couldn't go up and down the stairs with them. When he reached their apartments, he had to wait at the bottom. It took a while, but usually another resident of their apartment or house noticed them, and helped take their groceries and packages up for them. They'd give Obito a strange, unfamiliar look, before their greeting and saying goodbye and trekking back upstairs into their safe homes, where they could hide from the war that was driving up the cost of necessities and killing their loved ones.
Beloved pets loved Sunmon's warmth, and frequently would jump to settle on Obito's lap. This made returning people's pets a breeze, especially the cats, but cats were always particularly devoted to the Uchiha. Their owners too, would give Obito that strange unfamiliar look, before returning to their own lives.
He'd let children play with Sunmon as he helped guide them back to their parents in the market, or to the orphanage. They were gentle with the creature. In return, he told them stories of what little work he achieved as a genin. He didn't think it was impressive, not after hearing snippets of what his team and other shinobi were doing. Not when he could see shinobi race across the rooftops as though they owned all of Konoha and the powerful jutsu they could use that he could never ever learn now. But his sun still shined, and the children laughed and their eyes glistened with excitement of maybe one day being able to run up trees and walls and go on missions to help people too.
Like clockwork, he did his physical therapy, helped his grandmother as best he could, helped the elderly with their groceries, and helped pet owners find their pets. When Team Seven returned from their missions, he greeted them like old friends. They couldn't tell him much about their missions anymore, but otherwise they included him in their discussions and activities as though nothing had changed. It was a nice routine that allowed him to sometimes forget that he was missing most of his legs and an eye.
The sun guided him, a light in his dreary life. He was just trying to figure out how to keep himself and his teammates alive and comfortable. Obito Uchiha focused on it so strongly, he never realized that civilians started whispering the praises of the Uchiha clan more than they ever did previously. Nor did he notice Konoha's council looking his way, wondering what he would do next, and if they could use the action to Konoha's advantage.