Naruto x Digimon

Alive - Team Minato's Digidestined

Chapter 035

Originally Written: Monday, March 20, 2023 835AM; Tuesday, March 21, 2023 122PM; Wednesday, March 22, 2023 855AM; Monday, March 27, 2023 721AM to 742AM

. . . . .

There was another section to the third floor basement in Konoha's hospital. This section was separate from where Nonou had Rin work with Kiisu. The whole floor was built to serve as a military bunker for patients that couldn't be easily moved from the hospital during the Third Shinobi War. When Konoha realized it wouldn't be needed, the funds for upkeep were moved and the area was left to its own devices. As long as it didn't crumble and threaten the integrity of the hospital above it, no one outside the hospital cared for it.

As Obito couldn't make it down the stairs in his wheelchair, Shiro picked him up and Fara grabbed the wheelchair. Shiro hoisted him in a piggy back ride with strength enhanced by his good chakra control.

"Are we in a maze?" Obito looked around the space he'd never seen before. "Does Kiisu have an entire apartment down here?"

"Yes, and pretty much. He doesn't bother over here though." Fara took the lead with the group.

She led the duo to a relatively large room. There was nothing in it. Nothing on the walls, and no furniture. "There's other rooms that can be used. Kiisu doesn't use up much space. Let me know what you think."

"Will he come over here?" Rin asked while stepping into the room. She pointed to the walls as if tracing something out.

"He's too paranoid to leave his scrolls for long." Shiro replied. "A man who can be goaded into doing what he did, is just as easily afraid of being a victim to the same action."

Obito learned that quickly in his field of work, and agreed fully. He looked around the room with his sharingan active. He noted nothing suspicious or off with the room. He did wonder if it was far enough away from Kiisu that he wouldn't get suspicious. He deactivated his sharingan.

One look at Rin told him she'd decided that this was the room. She made Fara and Shiro go over the other rooms in the area anyway. Most of the rooms were completely empty. The ones that weren't empty were used as storage rooms for things the hospital needed, but not often, or to hold overstock of supplies that didn't easily go bad.

Rin made her decision, and Obito agreed, just to make it seem less like Rin was the forerunner of the entire plan in case things went terribly wrong. Shiro and Fara dropped them off topside, and returned to their own duties.

Though she was taking him out to lunch, Obito paid for the meal at the Akimichi's bar and grill.

"That was the closest one we could get, right?" He asked, holding up a piece of grilled meat to his lips.

"Yes. We'll have to make it work." Rin was eating quickly, a trait carried over from her busy work schedule and fighting on the field. "I think we can shift some of them around and still be good to go."

"Alright." Obito finally put the meat in his mouth and chewed. Fugaku had warned him of the looks he'd get traveling with Rin due to his position on the force. It was hard to get used to at first, but after Grandma Masumi's passing, he stopped caring about what others did or thought. He only kept an eye on anyone who'd think they could get the jump on him or Rin or even Kakashi, just because they saw them with a teenager in a wheelchair. Those people would learn they'd have a very bad day if they tried anything.

Rin leaned up against him, shoulder to shoulder. Broken out of his thoughts, he flushed.

"We'll try with him first." She said in a mix of verbal speech and hand signs. "Guinea pig."

Obito eventually nodded ever so slightly. That made sense, dark as it was. Kiisu's guilt meant he wouldn't take the attempt as an attack on his person if it failed. Anyone else in Rin's suspicions would surely try to attack or kill them if it didn't work. Still, he was saddened that Rin was the one who decided on such a plan. Kiri took much more from her than he'd originally thought. He wasn't sure what he'd do if he ran into a Kiri ninja, but he knew it wouldn't be pretty.

Rin poked his cheek. "No Sharingan while eating."

"Yes ma'am." He took the piece of food she gave to him.

Before long, he was back at work at the station. Fugaku wanted to test out his skill on field work, and he needed to be ready for that. The sun was already setting by the time he was done for the day. He decided to spend the last hours of daylight playing with Itachi. And then he was dragged over to the child's house for dinner.

Kabuto was there as was their mutual friend, Urushi. Kabuto didn't know what to do with himself until Itachi sat down right next to him. Between him and Urushi, young Kabuto had two shields that would protect him from anything that went wrong. Since the incident, Kabuto had become very silent. Obito had spoken to Nonou about it, and both pushed for him to spend more time with his friends to comfort him.

Dinner was a calm affair Obito thought, until Mikoto looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Her chopsticks were deep in a rice bowl as she spoke. "Your lion has been looking for you."

And Obito wasn't sure how to respond to that.

Urushi covered that for him. "That big guy is yours, Uncle Obito!?" Any sense of manners Nonou had taught him that he needed for eating at a clan head's house flew out the window at top speed. "He's so cool!"

Obito blinked in confusion. Firamon didn't need to look for him. He instinctively always knew where he was if they were in the same general location. He remembered that he told the digimon to patrol the clan grounds. He didn't think the lion would have taken the task so seriously that he wouldn't leave said grounds. He shook his head and chuckled. "Summons eh? Maybe you'll have one of your own one day."

"That's a ninja thing, right?" Urushi asked. Then he shook his head. "I don't wanna be a ninja. I wanna help run the orphanage when I get older. I'll watch all the cool summons from a distance!" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"A noble task." Fugaku eventually replied. "I'm sure the help will be appreciated."

Urushi grinned, and proceeded to tell Fugaku about how much of a 'swell guy' he thought he was. Fugaku fell silent and stiffened, unsure how to react. Mikoto smiled a teasing smile, Kabuto giggled behind his shaky hands, and Itachi hmm'd in the only way an Uchiha was allowed in order to convey their desire to cover their face with their hands in embarrassment. At least Urushi didn't touch upon his confusion as to why so many thought the Uchiha were scary or intimidating. Why Urushi knew what the word intimidating meant at his age was beyond Obito, but he knew it and could say it almost perfectly.

Kids were adorable. No wonder Grandma liked them.

Obito met Firamon after dinner. Late in the night. Except, he wasn't Firamon. Where Firamon was supposed to be stood an intimidating beast of a digimon. A tall bipedal lion of red-orange fur and a bright golden yellow mane. Equally golden yellow hair flowed down its back from his head, styled in a way that reminded him of Minato. The digimon would have towered over him twice over, even if he could stand up. His armor shined on his frame and red and white arm guards were attached to the gauntlets on his wrists.

Obito instinctively activated his sharingan, all the way to Mangekyo. How had he missed his sun digivolving? Was that what the pull on his chakra was? He had noticed that, but thought it was from his sharingan. He looked up at the digimon. "Sunmon, Coronamon, Firamon and now you. So, you're the same level as Matadormon?"

"I am."

Obito was stunned, Matadormon was the size of a normal human, just slightly taller. Here his digimon was easily twice the height, if not more so. "What's this form called?"

"I am Flaremon."

The way he said it made Obito shiver. Kakashi had warned him and Rin as well, but he didn't think so much of it. Not after Kakashi told him to not confront him, because they didn't realize they were doing it. It would only be met with confusion. Still…

"Okay Flaremon." Obito swallowed thickly, almost afraid to ask what he wanted. Could he? Could he stand the answer? He clenched his fists against the remains of his legs. "What did you want?"

The Digimon smiled at him, revealing teeth Obito knew could tear him into pieces at any time they wished. Its mane of golden hair seemed to flow like fire as he spoke. "I am your legs. I will walk for you. I will run for you. Ask me to jump and I will ask how high and leap to the stars if that is your will. If you lose your arms, I will hold whatever you need. If you lose your sight, I will describe the world for you. If you lose your mind, I will think for you. Your will shall be done, until my dying breath. The only thing I will not do…" The Digimon paused, and clenched his fists, "...is kill you."

Obito wasn't sure when his sharingan activated, but he could feel the strain of it on his chakra. He looked down at his hands. His vision blurred with tears. Even though Flaremon wasn't standing too close to him, he could still feel the Digimon's warmth. His sun. Always there shining, cheering him on to continue, even as everyone tried to take everything away from him. Believing in him.

He took his time to think. What could his sun do? He closed his eyes and meditated just like Naginata taught him. He pushed the answers that popped up first to the back of his mind. They were the simple answers the Digimon could easily do, answers far too close to what Madara Uchiha had done and hadn't worked. To moderate the military, you had to be bigger, better, smarter than them.

"I don't know how Rin's done it, but she says she can get me my legs back. But that's gonna put me down for a few weeks." Obito rambled, looking at his legs, even as tears dripped on them. His sharingan would forever remember every drop that fell. He clenched his fists. He glanced up for a moment, and then looked with all his attention. "Whatever I ask, you'll do?"

"Always." Flaremon looked at him, glowing as flame surrounded his body.

"Even if I send you away from me?"

"The only thing I will not do is kill you." He repeated. "I will know, if you are in need of me."

Obito breathed in deeply. His Mangekyo swirled in his eyes. He'd always remember the unspoken request to call for Firamon when needed. "Bring that bitch Senju back. If she was here, even with that asshole around, grandma would still be here! How dare she turn her back on our alliance and her duties!"

The next morning, talk quickly filled Konoha among the shinobi and the star struck children who had stayed up far too late playing and looking out their bedroom windows. A trail of fire had blazed through Konoha and out of it at vision blurring speeds, all without burning a single person or building.