Obito-Sensei Chapter 38

Field Trip

"Do you think it's gonna get better?" Obito asked, wringing out the hand towel and grimacing at the stain on it. He wasn't sure if it was toothpaste or something else, but he probably shouldn't have put it on his eye a second ago. Rin looked him over, tapping his temple with a glowing finger and frowning.

"I mean, it's pretty much healed. I doubt he put his back in it," she said. They were in his apartment's bathroom, late at night. Three months ago, Obito wouldn't have dreamed of it. Now, with Rin being one of the only people who bothered to talk to him, he didn't bother second guessing the situation.

"You know that's not what I meant," he said, spreading the skin around his eye with two fingers and wincing. She was right about that at least: the black eye was already essentially gone. He looked more like he hadn't been getting much sleep, which was definitely the case.

"Yeah, I know," Rin muttered. "I'm gonna kill him."

"Please don't," Obito said, knowing both that she wasn't serious and that she was absolutely capable of it. "I doubt that would help anything," he continued with a little laugh.

"You can't do something like that, Obito," Rin said after a moment, leaning back against the bathroom wall and crossing her arms. The room was spotless, but only because he'd dumped everything on the sink in the Kamui in a panic the moment she'd knocked on his door, even his toothbrush. Finding that was going to be a hassle. "I don't know if you think it'll make them feel better or something, but if some prick like Asuma gets drunk and takes a swing at you, let him fall on his ass. Letting him land a hit like that is only going to make things worse."

Obito didn't respond right away, staring at himself in the mirror and wondering if he always looked like such a mess, or if today was special. He was inclined to think it was the latter.

It had started with the whispers, and then turned faces and averted eyes. Konoha wasn't populated by stupid people: the fact that Obito had lost his team, the Hokage's son, had spread in just days. By the end of the first week, the blame had been cast.

Some had fallen on Sakura's parents. They'd born it with the steady determination of a couple who believed history was on their side. A little had come to rest on the Uchiha Clan's doorstep, but to the rest of the village their loyalty was unquestionable, and the tragedy of Mikoto's entire family abandoning her had kept cruelty from her life. That left the lion's share for Obito.

This wasn't a schoolyard: the village's judgement wasn't crass. He wasn't called a coward and a fool in the streets, though perhaps behind closed doors. No one denied him service: if he wanted to, he could walk into any restaurant or shop in the village and have a perfectly acceptable experience. But wherever he went, the eyes followed; the whispers followed.

It was funny, Obito had to say. If you went after him with a sword, he could laugh it off, step through it like a mild breeze. But there was something far more insidious about words. If there was a technique for stepping through them without leaving them embedded in your soul, he hadn't learned it yet.

That pariah status, that void that followed him wherever he went until he decided that going anywhere wasn't worth it, had persisted until today. But today, something had changed. Asuma and Kurenai had confronted him while he was training alone. They'd been drunk; they'd said regrettable things, and he'd returned the favor.

When Asuma had swung, a dirty haymaker that was all anger and no technique, Obito hadn't even thought about dodging. He'd taken it head-on, determined to not give an inch, and gotten a black eye for his trouble. The Jonin had left like children fearing an adult's attention: an invisible line had been crossed, and Obito was pretty sure it wouldn't happen again. Violence like that was unacceptable. They still had to work together, after all.

But the fact that it had happened at all indicated how far things had come.

'You threw away the village's future, you piece of shit. All three of those kids were one of a kind… all that work we put into Sakura was wasted. And you're still here, still training, like you're worth something? You're useless, less than useless. You're sick.'

"Obito?" He shook his head, looking back at Rin in the mirror. She bit her lip. "Are you going to ask sensei to do something?"

"Only if it happens again," Obito said with a sigh. "Everyone's still hoping they'll just come right back. Every day they don't, it gets a little rawer."

"Maybe they should," Rin said with a sneer. "You don't deserve this. Those morons…"

"Hey," he said, trying to sound firm. "My bruise, my decision, okay? And besides, Kushina would do more than just threaten to kill them if it came to that."

"I just can't stand it." Rin's hands curled into fists. "I feel like… I don't want you to end up like Kakashi's father, Obito."

Obito blinked, straightening up. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Rin's face grew hard. " Did you ever ask how Kakashi inherited his sword?"

"No," Obito said, feeling stupid. Even if it was relatively ancient history, he felt a sting of guilt for not knowing more about his deceased teammate. His sensei had told him, long ago, that the White Fang had committed suicide after a mission gone wrong, and that Kakashi had devoted himself to the village in his honor, but little more than that. "I figured he just inherited it."

"He did," Rin said. She leaned forward. "But it was also the blade the White Fang used to end his own life. He found it in his father's body."

Obito blinked, staring at her. "What the fuck?" he asked, at a loss for words. "How the hell do you know that?"

"Sensei told me," Rin said, her chocolate brown eyes tired and full of obvious, pitiable concern. "And he told me to tell you. Shinobi can be cruel, Obito: the White Fang's choice led to the Third War, and all the hatred and pain of it fell on him until he couldn't bear it. Letting Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura leave isn't nearly as bad as that, but he thought it was… weird that the sword passed from one familiar story to another."

Obito tried to crack a smile. "Maybe it's cursed," he said, and Rin rolled her eyes. "I could throw it away."

"You wouldn't throw away Kakashi's only present," she teased, her voice full of humor and sorrow. "Then you'd have to worry about his ghost bullying you too." She froze up in horror for a moment at her own words, but Obito freed her with a laugh.

"Yeah, and he'd be a lot better at it," he chuckled. "He always knew how to knock me down a peg."

They paused after that, a silence stretching between them. Obito closed his eyes, wondering why he didn't care more. About the village, about his bruise, about his team.

Adversity could bring out the truth, he decided. He'd been solitary before by choice: taking that choice away from him didn't make much of a change. He still had Rin, Gai, his sensei and Kushina, and his clan. He hadn't lost anything irreplaceable, or broken anything that couldn't be repaired.

But still, it hurt. It hurt enough to make his throat close up and his heart struggle. Konoha turning its back on him was the worst pain he'd ever experienced, and it had only been two months. He didn't know what he would do if Sakura's mission continued for much longer. His dreams seemed to be only drawing farther away.

"Maybe I should take a vacation," he suddenly said, and Rin almost jumped. She gave him a suspicious look.

"Do you mean, like, a sit on the couch in your underwear vacation?" she asked, and Obito blushed. "Or a run away to a tropical paradise vacation?"

"Uh, neither," he admitted. "Was more wondering if sensei had anything outside of the village. I could get some fresh air."

"You always did jump into work," Rin said. He couldn't tell if it was a compliment or not. "But that might be best, especially now. People have short memories, and absence makes the heart grow fonder. If you left for a bit, morons like that meathead Sarutobi might start missing you."

"You don't gotta put it so cynically," Obito grumbled. Rin laughed. "Can't I just do my job without all those extra considerations?"

"You can," Rin said. "But I can't forget them, Obito."

"Well, I guess it won't hurt for someone to keep track of them," Obito said.

Rin pushed herself off the wall, stretching her arms over her head and popping out her chest, and Obito forced himself not to stare. "Do you want me to stick around?" she asked, and he blinked. "We could rent a movie or something, if you don't wanna be on your own." She grinned. "I've got no plans tonight."

"That's uh…" He swallowed. "That's fine. I appreciate it, but I think I'm just gonna go to bed."

"You sure?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow. Obito felt like she was appraising him, but he couldn't tell why.

"Yeah." He grinned. "I think my VHS is broken anyway." He wasn't going to admit that he'd never used it, not since the day he'd been gifted it more than a year ago. "Hope you have a good night."

They left the bathroom together, Rin regarding him with an inscrutable look the whole time. "Alright," she said. "If you're sure. Don't be afraid to reach out, okay? Come see me if you do end up going on your little odyssey."

"I will," he said, marveling at how lucky he was. He opened and held the door, and Rin smirked at him as she stepped through. "Thanks, Rin."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving him off. "Just remember, next time let them fall on their ass."

"There won't be a next time," he said, and she rolled her eyes. "But I'll remember."

"Uh-huh. Night, Obito," she said, and pulled the door closed behind her with irresistible strength.

###

The next day came, and Obito did his best to embrace it. That was, until he made it to the front door. Hand resting on the knob, he considered the glances he'd get walking the streets, and dropped his hand. Even if it was childish, he didn't want to deal with that today.

So instead of stepping through his door he took a couple steps through space and time, directly into the Hokage's office.

The office was, as usual, occupied. However, he'd clearly interrupted a special occasion. Usually the office only held one Hokage: today, it had two. Both his sensei and the Sandaime were seated across from each other, heads bent low and deep in conversation. Some chairs had been pulled from the walls to the center of the room. They both glanced over at him at the same time, inhuman reflexes alerting them to his presence before he had even fully left the Kamui.

"Obito," his sensei said, the Sandaime nodding in acknowledgement. "Good timing, believe it or not. Grab a seat, would you?"

Obito gave a silent nod and pulled a chair up to form a triangle with the two men, plopping down in it with one leg crossed over the other. The Sandaime sighed, shifting to face him.

"I must apologize on my son's behalf," he said, sounding tired and old. It was a little unnerving, Obito thought. Even if the man was old, he was always a pillar of surety to the village; here, dressed in simple clothes and his wrinkles deeper than ever, he seemed less than what he really was. "What Asuma did was unforgivable. Biwako has already made her displeasure known."

Obito flinched. Biwako Sarutobi was one of the village's most senior medical ninja, and wasn't exactly known for her bedside manner. Rin had told him a couple times she was the only shinobi she was really scared of. "Well, I hope you won't mind if I have forgiven him then, Sandaime," he ventured, and the old man chuckled. "As you can see, it wasn't anything permanent."

"No, but something doesn't need to be permanent to matter," the Sandaime said with a smile. "Shinobi alone are proof enough of that, after all." His smile faded to a frown. "We're concerned, Obito. The both of us."

"About me?" Obito waved them off. "I'm fine. I don't want you two going out of your way." The Sandaime knew the truth behind his team's defection as well, of course: his sensei frequently turned to him for advice, even decades into his reign. The man had essentially built Konoha as it was, after all.

"He's right, Obito," Minato said, steepling his fingers. "We've made it very clear to the Jonin Commanders that something like that was completely unacceptable, and yet you're still being harassed. Short of coming out and revealing Sakura's defection was planned, we're unable to do more at this point." He frowned, so severe that it probably would have scared anyone else out of the room. "I thought better of them."

"They think I threw away your son, sensei," Obito said candidly. "I'm surprised it hasn't been worse."

"Well, that's just what we were discussing," the Sandaime said. "Obito, we think it may be prudent for you to leave the village for a time. To let wounds heal, as it were."

Obito laughed, and the two men stared at him. "Beat you to it," he chuckled, and Minato cracked a grin. "I was wondering if you had any assignments, sensei. Nothing very long term, but enough to keep me busy."

"Well, that's just the problem," Minato admitted. "At the moment, things are relatively quiet." He glanced at the Sandaime. "There is one mission I was going to give to Gai, but perhaps it would be a better fit for you. Of course, it probably would only take you a day or two."

"What is it?" Obito said, mulling it over. He considered his hairbrained plan from the night before, cooked up after Rin left when he had nothing but himself and his ambition for company. Maybe this would be the perfect fit.

"You're aware that Kumo has had unusual trade habits in the last few years," Minato said, and Obito nodded. It was a given: paranoid and insular, the Land of Lightning and its Village Hidden in the Clouds gave few tells to its activity, and the mass movement of weapons, chakra conductive material, and other unusual trade goods past its border was one of the few ways to keep abreast of its intentions. "All of our sources, and the Daimyo's as well, agree that Kumo is up to something big, but the reality of the matter is top secret. No one has managed to learn a thing beyond the fact that they're building 'something.'"

He made an unimpressed air quote around the word, and Obito grinned. "Something like, what? A bunch of swords? All that metal's going somewhere."

"Somewhere," Minato agreed, "but I doubt it's that mundane. Most likely it's an expansion of their weapons program." Obito nodded, remembering a distant conversation with Rin, from before the Chunin Exam, from a different world.

"It is Cloud's recent actions that may provide further clues." The Sandaime spoke up, his gravelly voice instantly commanding their attention. "The government of the Land of Lightning personally reached out to a rogue ninja on their behalf."

"A rogue?" Obito asked, leaning forward. "That's not really their style."

"He is currently being pursued by the Nation of Rain, and apparently seeking sanctuary," the Sandaime continued with a shrug. "He is not a defector from any village: he is a rogue in the sense that he is a shinobi without any loyalties. I doubt you have heard of him."

"What's his name?" Obito asked.

"Katasuke Touno," the Sandaime said. He was right. Obito hadn't heard of him, and certainly hadn't seen him in any Bingo Book.

"By all accounts, he's a genius," Minato elaborated. "A reputation with some backing, considering he's maintained his independence for years, until now." He gestured between himself and the Sandaime. "We, and I'm sure anyone who is paying attention, are very curious why he of all people would be approached by Cloud, especially when it goes so against their recent goal of only recruiting internally."

"So you want me to track him down?" Obito asked. "Why is Rain chasing him?"

"Most likely for the same reason. They want to recruit him," Minato said. His eyes narrowed. "They're just being more aggressive about it."

"And are we recruiting him?" Obito said. His sensei shrugged.

"If we can," he said. "We want someone to make contact with and appraise him. If he can be convinced to join Konoha instead, wonderful: if he cannot, then perhaps he can be made to spy on Kumo on our behalf."

"And if he doesn't agree to either of those?"

"Then information is paramount," the Sandaime finished. "What kind of shinobi he is, why Cloud may be recruiting him, what he hopes to accomplish with them." He huffed. "A man like that is unpredictable; you would be an ideal analyst, Obito, if you'll take the mission."

"I'll take it," Obito agreed without hesitation, and his sensei gave him a smile. "With a condition."

"A condition?" Minato asked, a little surprised. Obito grinned back.

"Tell me how to find Myoboku," he said, and both of Minato's eyebrows shot up.

"Find?" he asked. "Obito, if you're looking to make a contract with the Toads…"

"I could just ask you, right," Obito said with a wave of his hands. "But if I was going to do that, I would have asked years ago, sensei. I want to seek them out myself."

'I didn't think I was worthy before.' He didn't say it aloud, but it was true. 'I want to prove that I am.'

"Finding Myoboku isn't something most people are capable of," Minato mused. "You know that, right Obito?"

"Jiraiya told me I wouldn't be able to locate it, even with my Kamui," Obito admitted, and Minato nodded.

"It's a physical location, but the paths to it are always changing," he said. Obito gave him a quizzical look; that sounded like a bunch of nonsense. "It is a mountain in the world, but some of it exists in a parallel space, almost like your Kamui. You could reach it by walking, but it would take months." He scratched his chin. "But Jiraiya-sensei may not be completely correct… your Kamui couldn't find it by itself, that's true, but it would give you a pretty unique advantage in locating it."

"How do you mean?"

"The paths to Myoboku are treacherous, but the reason they give people so much trouble and take so long to travel is because the Natural Energy that saturates them causes them to constantly shift," Minato elaborated. "But with your Sharingan, I bet you could detect those changes, maybe even account for them." He leaned back. "Never thought about it before. It's pretty neat, huh?"

Obito could feel himself start to get a little excited. And why not? He could afford a little excitement in his life. "Where could I get started then?" he asked. Minato grinned.

"The Land of Frost, funnily enough," he said, and Obito blinked. Almost too convenient to be true: Frost bordered Lightning, after all. "Along the northern coast, on the Dark Sea. That would be the best place for you to begin."

"That's a pretty big coast," Obito laughed. "A 'know it when you see it' thing, huh?"

"Oh yeah, for sure. But I think the toads would complain if I told you more," Minato said. "So, when will you head out?"

Obito stood up. "No time like the present, right?" He winked. "I'll see you soon."

Then he stepped out of the office just as abruptly as he'd entered, and left the Hokage to their devices.

###

The nice thing about keeping the Kamui stocked with all sorts of odds and ends was that Obito didn't even have to go home to start his mission. He dropped by the hospital, said goodbye to a startled Rin ("Don't know when I'll be back!" "Wait, what-?!"), and was on his way like that. With both Frost and Lightning to the north, that was the obvious direction for him to head.

First things first: finding out where Katasuke Touno was last spotted. As ever, Obito counted his lucky stars that Jiraiya had given him access to his information network: it made boring work like this infinitely easier. He visited, in order, a hotel, a bar, a hot spring, a casino, and finally a clothing boutique, and picked up another crumb at each. By the end of it he'd spent over twenty thousand Ryo in bribes and six hours of his day, but his final trip gave him a name to work with.

"Hiyama." The owner of the boutique was an older woman with grey hair and a severe beauty, and Obito suspected the outfit and extravagant hat she was wearing cost as much as some people made in a year. "That's where he was last headed. Apparently to meet up with an extraction team from Cloud. Besides that, no one was saying anything. That was… yesterday. Late yesterday." She gave an exaggerated shrug, the dozens of beads strung around her shoulders and hands jangling. "Perhaps you could still catch him, Mangekyo no Obito."

He'd said his thanks, paid an extra ten thousand Ryo to show he was sincere, and then headed towards Hiyama. He knew the place on a map, but nothing else about it. It was a small border town nestled in the range of mountains that separated the lands of Frost and Lightning, with a population that rarely went over a thousand. Mountain towns like that often had a lot of transient groups: people who came to enjoy the summers and then retreated from the harsh winters to more hospitable climates.

When Obito arrived, it was already late: Hiyama was an hour ahead of Konoha, and the sun had all but set. He wasn't rude enough to pop up in the center of town as he would in many other places: it was one thing to do that with people you knew, and another entirely with strangers. Experience had taught him that it was almost always best to approach in a traditional way. The road that led to the town's main street was narrow and windy, barely wide enough to accommodate a carriage, and Obito walked it gratefully, appreciating the mountain views and the crisp cold air.

Obito never considered it consciously, but he had a great love of the freedom to travel the Kamui gave him. To move from the dense forests of the Fire to the sparse mountains of Frost in an afternoon was thrilling, and he couldn't help but give thanks for it.

When he rounded a corner and the town came into view, Obito was a little underwhelmed. It was essentially a single main street covered in stores, restaurants, and other services cut through a mountain pass, with several tributary streets covered in residential buildings. Standard, safe, and mundane. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but it wasn't a very grand reward for a day of work.

He ambled into town, hands stuffed into his pockets, and thought back to where Sakura had defected. Atsuitsa, right? That town had been much the same, though Hiyama seemed even quieter. Maybe it was just the time of day. The streets were empty, and a warm late spring wind whistled through the streets. Several of the buildings were lit up, the sound of music and the smell of food pouring out of them, and Obito set his sights on the nearest one. In a small town like this, a rogue ninja coming through would be on the tip of everyone's tongue.

It was, for lack of a better term, a saloon, and Obito quietly pushed the door open and made his way inside. He paused at the entrance for a heartbeat, feeling like he was being watched, but shook the feeling off. The first floor was wide, devoted to tables, chairs, and game tables, with a wide bar dominating the back of the room with two doors to either side of it that led up the second and third floor. It was also absolutely stuffed with people: it was a full house, and festivities were in full swing. Everywhere Obito looked, he found people dancing, singing, arguing, gambling, eating and drinking with fervor. The town seemed possessed of a bizarre optimism.

It was funny, he thought. If Lightning and Frost ever came to blows, places like this would be the first to be flattened, torn apart as collateral by the Daimyo's armies or battalions of shinobi. Maybe they knew that: maybe living to the fullest now was better than contemplating an uncertain future. There was a pair of seats available at the end of the bar, and he sidled towards it, slipping through the crowd.

The farther in he got, the more eyes there were on him. The atmosphere of the saloon didn't deflate, but a fraction of its attention was devoted to him. His hitai-ate was apparent: he was another foriegn shinobi, the second in as many days if Jiraiya's source was to be believed. The attention was natural.

Obito slid onto the stool, and after a minute the ever busy bartender, a younger man with pitch black hair and red eyes, made his way over to him.

"Can I get you something?" he asked, his voice smooth, and Obito gave him a grin.

"Got milk?" he asked, and the bartender laughed.

"Sure," he said. "Setting up a tab?" Obito couldn't help but be impressed. Innocent question with plenty of implications. He liked that.

"No, just for the night," he said. The bartender shrugged.

"Twenty Ryo then," he said, and then he went to fetch Obito's drink.

When he came back with a short ceramic mug, Obito pulled out two bills. Each was a hundred. The bartender eyed him warily.

"One's for the drink," he said, and the younger man snorted, an abbreviated laugh. "The other's for some information, if you think you could help."

"Oh yeah?" he asked. He held his hand out, and Obito folded both bills neatly and dropped them in the waiting palm. "You're a shinobi, right? From Konoha?"

"Yup," Obito said. He took a sip of his drink. To his surprise, it was pretty good. The milk was probably local: he'd seen a couple stables on his way in, and it didn't have any of the chemical taste that something transported up to a town like this would have. "Have you seen any others coming through recently?"

"A couple, yeah," the man admitted, his eyes darting towards the entrance. Obito smiled, not turning to look. "Some from the Land of Lightning, and some from the Land of Rain."

"Rain?" Obito blinked in surprise, and the bartender gave him a curious look. "Really? All the way up here?"

"Yeah, I think so," the man said. "I mean, we try to keep track of the symbols, you know, and they had the ones with three lines. They were chasing after the Lightning folks, seemed like."

"Anything unique about them?" Obito couldn't help but ask, and the man shook his head.

"I didn't see em myself," he explained, glancing over Obito's shoulder once again. "If you wanted more specific stuff like that, you'd probably wanna talk to Kisame."

"Kisame?" Obito asked, before he suddenly realized there was someone behind him. He froze. He'd been aware of the commotion filling the building, even with his back turned, but the nearest table was almost ten feet away. He hadn't heard the creek of the wood floor, felt an unsteady presence. There was simply someone there now, appearing without warning.

If they'd snuck up on him like that, they had to be a shinobi. The bartender had seen them approach: he just had been stupid and macho and not looked back himself. Obito didn't make any sudden moves as the ninja behind him stepped to the side, settling down on the stool next to him. He glanced to the right, trying to seem non-threatening, and then up.

The man who'd taken a seat at his side was enormous, easily seven feet tall and more than twice Obito's width at the shoulders. He wore a tan shirt with a brown vest and simple blue pants with a belt, and there was something wrapped around his neck and hanging down his back, like a scarf made of razor scales. As Obito watched, it shifted like a living thing, settling into a more comfortable position.

That was noteworthy, but so was the man himself. His skin was a dull blue, and his eyes were small pale dots in a harsh and wide face. He looked over at Obito and grinned, and Obito saw that his teeth were sharp and triangular; filed or natural, he couldn't tell.

They reminded him of a shark.

"So," the man asked. "What brings you to my town, Obito Uchiha?"

With his surprise buried, Obito didn't hesitate. He finished his drink and stuck out his hand. "You've got me at a disadvantage," he admitted, and the man laughed. "You know me, but unfortunately, I don't know you."

"Kisame Hoshigaki," the man rumbled with obvious amusement, refusing to take Obito's hand. Obviously he knew what Obito's touch could do. "Not here to cause trouble, are you?"

Kisame. He hadn't heard the name until a moment ago, but the man exuded so much obvious power and authority that Obito was baffled at how that could be the case. "I don't think so," he said, withdrawing his hand. "I'm looking for someone, that's all."

"Those shinobi who came through here earlier, Kisame," the bartender spoke up, and Kisame gave him an amused look. "The ones that almost started a fight."

"Figures," the man grunted. "So which ones were you after, Uchiha? The bastards from Rain, or the cowards from Cloud?"

"Neither," Obito said. "I was told the shinobi from Cloud were escorting a man. Another shinobi, younger. He's the one I'm looking for."

"That little guy?" Kisame asked. "Huh. Guess there was more to him than meets the eye." He leaned back. "They were here, yeah. Should still be pretty close, I bet. Some of them were pretty hurt."

"Hurt?" Obito asked. "I thought it was almost starting a fight."

Kisame laughed. "They had the good sense to wait until they were out of town," he said, flashing his teeth. "But one of them ended up with their arm half-frozen, and that pink haired girl almost took another's head off. Last I saw of them, they were laying low in one of Cloud's little outposts, past the border."

Obito's brain short circuited. Pink hair? He blinked, and Kisame saw his hesitation.

"You know them?" he grunted. Obito gave him a suspicious look.

"Pink hair? Green eyes?" he asked, and Kisame gave him a flat look, his shark-like eyes not betraying a thing. "Did she use a water sword?"

"Yeah, you know her." The bartender brought the hulking shinobi a glass of water. "Funny. You run into her before? She seemed pretty wild."

"She was my student," Obito said, and to his satisfaction the man coughed, almost choking on his water.

"Really?" he said with a laugh, setting the glass back down. "What the hell did you teach her? I didn't realize Leaf and Rain were exchanging kids now."

"We aren't," Obito grumbled. "She ran away."

"Just as well," Kisame said, and Obito gave him a cockeyed look. What was someone like this doing out here? The bartender was familiar with him, had spoken of him on a first name basis: that was something most shinobi did, a relic of the constant clan wars of the past, but many civilians didn't grow friendly enough with them to be comfortable speaking so informally. As he looked around, he realized that despite his size and appearance, Kisame was completely at home in the saloon: Obito was the one sticking out and drawing attention, while the shark-man was just another familiar face. Everyone here knew him.

"Well anyway, that's a hell of a coincidence," Kisame continued. "You sure she's not the one you're chasing? She and the rest went west, probably heading back to that dump of a country they came from." He sneered, and Obito shook his head.

"I'm sure. There were others with her?" Obito asked, and Kisame shrugged.

"A couple. Kid with glasses, a girl with red hair, some blond punk with scars-" he drew fingers across his cheeks, and Obito's eyes were drawn to the gill-like protrusions there, "-like this. There were more, but I didn't see them."

Obito leaned back, lost in thought. Two of his students here in the Land of Frost, and just the day before. Where was Sasuke? Still back in Rain? Why had Sakura and Naruto been here? Were they the team chasing Katasuke? Were they already that trusted? If that was the case, it was fantastic beyond words.

Of course, them being here also went beyond coincidence into frightening. What if he'd asked for the mission the day before? Could he have handled seeing them? Obito didn't know, and he was almost glad he hadn't found out.

"Course," Kisame said, "I'm only telling this so you'll get lost. If you stick around, you're liable to attract trouble."

"What, me?" Obito asked with a bit of a bite, and Kisame laughed. "What about you?"

"I'm here so there isn't trouble," Kisame said with a raised eyebrow. "You gonna get lost or not?"

Obito considered. "Tell you what," he said. "You lead me to that outpost, I'll get out of your hair. ASAP."

Kisame gave him an unreadable look, his beady eyes narrowing. After a moment, he grunted and finished his water, gently placing it back on the counter with a grateful nod to the bartender. "Fine," he said. "If that'll get you on your way." He stood up, towering over Obito, and his scaly scarf shifted again, adjusting itself to drape farther down his back. "Let's go now, huh? While they're still licking their wounds."

Obito finished his milk and left the counter behind, following Kisame as the hulking man forged a path out of the bustling saloon. When they stepped outside, he realized the sun had already set; the mountains were draped in shadows, and the wind was growing colder. Kisame glanced back at him, a couple of his teeth bared in a half grin.

"It's gonna be to the north. Hope you don't mind a walk, Uchiha." He set off down the main and only street, and Obito hustled after him, having to take two steps for each of Kisame's.

"I'll admit," he eventually said as they cleared the town and started heading into the rocky wilderness of the mountains. "I came to find that man, but I didn't think I'd find someone like you."

"Are you flirting with me?" Kisame grunted, and Obito laughed.

"Just curious," he said, and then almost bit his tongue when he realized how that had come out. "I've never heard of you, but you got right behind me without me noticing a thing. There aren't many people around who can do that." They moved off the road, picking up the pace and gliding between scrub oak and stone inclines.

"Maybe you've just got a high opinion of yourself," Kisame said with a chuckle. Obito rolled his eyes.

"Don't think anyone's accused me of that before," he said. Kisame laughed again, this time a little more genuinely. "What're you doing in a town like Hiyame? It was plain enough that everyone there knew you. You must have been there for a while."

"Long enough," Kisame said, glancing back as they began climbing a hill far too steep for anyone but a shinobi, loose chunks of rock skittering away beneath them. "Why do you care?"

"Like I said, I'm just curious," Obito said, doing his best to appear non-threatening. He normally would have activated his Sharingan to see better in the dark, but he could tell that around Kisame, that might not be the best idea.

Kisame considered that as they climbed, seemingly content with the silence. Just when Obito was sure he wasn't going to reply, he spoke. "About ten years."

"That long?" Obito asked. "Are you from the Land of Frost?"

"Water. Listen, seriously, why do you care?" Kisame gave him a narrow glare. "You don't strike me as a bounty hunter."

"Do you have a bounty?" Obito asked, letting a little genuine surprise creep into his voice, and Kisame gave him an incredulous look.

"Seriously?" he said, sounding a little indignant. "Did people just forget about me? I'm a little insulted."

"If you did something worth being put in the Bingo Books for, none of the governments ever bothered to enter you," Obito said, wondering what the man could be talking about. "So if you're from the Land of Water, you're a fugitive then? Were you with the Village Hidden in the Mist?"

Kisame slowed down and gave him a careful look, obviously looking for deception and finding none. He shrugged. "Yeah, a long time ago. It doesn't matter anymore."

"So you left and came here? If you might have a bounty, I figure a guy like you would stay on the move," Obito continued, and Kisame snorted.

"Do all Leaf ninja ask a bunch of questions, or is it just guys like you?"

"That's fair," Obito said, raising one hand in mock surrender as they crested the top of the hill, the mountain range stretching out before them. "Sorry for being pushy."

"Let me ask you a question then," Kisame said, giving him a mean grin. "You're some bigshot, aren't you? Right hand of the Hokage, I've heard."

Obito shrugged, and Kisame's grin twitched. "So if that's the case, how come you're out here in the boonies, chasing down a little guy like that Cloud vip?"

"My students defected to Ame," Obito said after a pause. Give and take, he figured, and besides, he didn't care what some fugitive ninja in a small mountain town thought of him. "One of them was the Hokage's son; I'm not very popular in Leaf right now, so I asked for an assignment like this one."

"Huh!" Kisame grunted. "You lost a kid like that? How'd they manage to get one over someone like you?"

"They snuck off in the middle of the night," Obito said. "I wasn't paranoid enough to think they'd do something like that, so I didn't wake up." It was a practiced story that he'd given out many times in the last two months, and like the best lies was partially true to boot.

Kisame gave him a look. "Uh huh," he said, and Obito blinked. The man knew he was lying. How was that possible? "And they're going after you for that?"

Obito gave a brief nod, refocusing on navigating the treacherous mountain paths, and Kisame chuckled. "Shit's like that is what made me leave. There's no gratitude in a Hidden Village; they like you so long as you're useful, and then if you mess up they'll put your head to the curb and stomp down on it."

"Well, that hasn't happened yet," Obito said, self consciously tracing his healed black eye. "The village is grieving. It just needs some time."

Kisame sneered. "Your village doesn't have any feelings, Uchiha. It's just full of people who do. Some of them will get over themselves, and some of them are gonna hold a grudge for you till they drop dead. Maybe 'cause you're already a bigshot enough of them will stop to trick you into thinking things have gone back to normal."

Obito stared at the man as they rushed down the back of the mountain, feeling the cold wind against his face. "What'd you do then, that made people not forgive you?"

Kisame grinned. "You know, if we fought out here, I could probably take you, so what the hell." His teeth were bright in the dark, and his huge scarf was rippling. "I killed the Land of Water's Daimyo. A little better than misplacing a couple brats, don't you think?"

Obito came to a stop, almost tripping over a boulder that had settled on the mountainside long ago and clung there in apparent defiance of gravity. "You're the one who killed the Daimyo?" he said, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up, and Kisame came to a stop as well, still grinning. "Are you for real?"

Kisame's smile faded. "Huh, you really aren't a bounty hunter." He kicked a rock, apparently disgruntled. "You didn't jump or anything."

Obito just cocked his head in disbelief. Everyone knew that the Land of Water had suffered a tragedy a decade ago, its Daimyo slain by one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist who had then fled the country. If it had happened nowadays, the Nation of Rain would likely have been blamed instantly, but back then it had been considered a bizarre and pointless act that had only deprived Mist of one of its legendary swords, a trend that had continued with more swordsmen dying or disappearing.

But it had been this man? It didn't make sense to him.

"Why'd you do it?" he asked, and Kisame cocked his head in turn. "You don't seem like the revolutionary type. I'm surprised you didn't go to Rain. Or that they haven't reached out to you."

"I didn't do it because of anything that boring, and those dumb fucks know it," Kisame said, rolling his eyes. "Places like Rain just wanted to replace the power structure; that's all they did in that mudbucket, kicking out the government and keeping the bureaucrats. New face, same problems. Just a pretty little lie."

He crossed his arms, staring Obito down and clearly assessing whether he was about to start a fight. "That structure, those kind of shinobi: it's the same rot that afflicts all the Hidden Villages, and all the major nations. Water's civil war helped me realize that. It didn't matter if it was Yagura or the old guard or the Daimyo stoking things on, the fact that shinobi were still around, still fighting to be in charge of even the smallest pile of shit, proved things couldn't be repaired. Even when Yagura died from that curse seal, major clan's just started killing each other for the honor of shoving his corpse out of the chair."

He grinned. "So I killed the Daimyo, just to see if that would change anything. And it didn't, so I ran. Shinobi are a blight, so I went somewhere they'd rarely go, somewhere that could be kept safe from them."

"So what, you're like Hiyama's sheriff?" Obito scoffed. Kisame rolled his shoulders, and the scarf that was definitely not a scarf on his shoulder hissed.

"I don't stay here to enforce anything," he said with a laugh. "People join law enforcement because they want to have power over their community. Your clan is military police, you should know that. I'm just here to maintain a place I'd want to live. I keep Hiyama safe from shinobi: it gives me a roof. It's a fair trade."

"Sounds like a pointless life."

"Better than being a village's bitch like you, Uchiha."

Obito bristled, but managed to calm himself before doing something stupid. "You don't seem like the kind of guy who'd kill a Daimyo on a whim," he said. Kisame tensed, and then deflated, his posture relaxing.

"That's true," he said. "I was a different person then." He frowned. "You've got an irritating thing about you, Obito Uchiha. From everything I'd heard, I figured you'd just be another murderer."

"Maybe those stories came from when I was a different person too," Obito said. He couldn't even disagree with the impression: there was enough blood in his past to fill a lake, and that wasn't something that washed off with time and introspection. "Were you trying to start a fight?"

"A little," Kisame admitted. "It's a bad habit. I thought I'd draw you out here first."

"Why?"

"You're a famous ninja. It was my job to kill them for a long time. Instincts die hard, you know. I meet someone strong like you, my first thought is I've gotta tear your face off."

"Cute." Obito looked him over. "I'm not interested."

"Then neither am I," Kisame said, looking a little chagrined. "Sorry. Usually that whole spiel really gets the morons fired up."

"Were you even leading me the right way? Or just away from the town?" Obito asked, and Kisame nodded.

"I was," he said, gesturing farther into the mountain range. "The outpost is about five miles that way." He dropped his arm. "I could take you the rest of the way, if you want. Been a while since I've had a, uh, conversation, if you don't mind me saying." He rubbed the back of his head. "I'd die for Hiyama, but the people there aren't really equipped to talk about being a shinobi. And the less they know, the better."

"You'd die for them?" Obito said, starting to walk in the direction Kisame had indicated, and the hulking man followed him. "That's a pretty intense thing to say." And unusual in its own right, he internally amended. Most shinobi took it as a given they would die for something. Saying it out loud marked its extraordinary nature.

"They gave me a home," the man said, his voice uncharacteristically low. "Loyalty's in short supply in the world today: you should know that more than most. If they've done right by me, I should do right by them." He laughed. "My life ended the moment I killed the Daimyo anyway. That's not something you can come back from."

"Probably not," Obito said, skirting around a fallen tree. "But don't worry. I won't be sending any bounty hunters after you. It'd be rude."

"I'd just kill them anyway. So it'd be a waste of time," Kisame said with a shrug, and Obito gave him an amused look.

"You're that confident, huh? I can't remember the last guy to openly confront me," he said, and Kisame smirked.

"I've got Samehada," he said, giving the thing hanging around his shoulders a pet, and it shivered. Obito stared, finally giving in to his curiosity and activating his Sharingan.

He blinked.

"That thing's your sword?" he asked, and they continued to make mild conversation as they made their way through the deepening mountain night.