Deidara and Tobi looked much more frightening in person. Tobi's, or rather, Obito's swaying back and forth was probably supposed to come off as child like and non-threatening, but it just reminded her of the pendulum of a ticking clock, counting down the seconds to the inevitable.
Deidara chewed bubblegum, Blue eyes icy and sharp, hands absentmindedly kneading explosive clay as he surveyed them from his perch on the tree branch.
What the hell were they even doing here?! There had been no sign of akatsuki before now, and even then, it was supposed to be Itachi and Kisame, not these two!
The four seasoned ninja formed a defensive barrier in front of Haruhi and the genin as Haruhi gathered them around and behind her.
"Who are they?" Tsunade muttered.
"Akatsuki." Jiriaya growled. "A group of missing-nin that has been gaining power over the past couple of years."
"We sure have, yeah!" Deidara said, Tobi letting out a little cheer in the background. "Now hand over the Jinjuriki and maybe you leave this alive."
Haruhi wasn't worried about him. Kakashi was the worst possible opponent Deidara could have. But Tobi? He was still a wild card at this point.
"Jinchuuriki?" Tenten muttered, glancing at Naruto being shielded by Haruhi. She felt his grip tighten on the back of her shirt. All the seasoned Nin stiffened, and Kakashi tensed, moving forward and revealing his sharingan, hands already moving through the motions for Chidori.
"Kids, get ready." Haruhi muttered. Tenten pulled out her funjutsu, Sasuke copied Kakashi, eyes spinning and hands flashing, while Naruto began to faintly leak red chakra.
"Really?" Kakashi said mildly. "You want to go up against two of the legendary sannin, Kakashi of the sharingan, and the Legendary Tsunade's apprentice?
That gave Deidara pause, but Tobi took over.
"You don't really need him anyway, right? We'll take Gooooooood care of him!" Tobi's body contorted as he bent in half to wave at Naruto behind Haruhi. He growled, eyes flashing demon red, but Haruhi pulled him back behind her.
Haruhi wanted to scream at him, yell at him for the harm he caused, for refusing to let a dead girl lie, for causing chaos and genocide across the elemental nations.
"We're fine, thanks." She said instead. Even she knew when so keep her mouth shut.
She felt Obito's sharingan eye slide towards her, and her skin prickled from the charged atmosphere. Tsunade's fists glowed, Shizune pulled out her senbon, and Jiraiya's eyes turned into rectangles as he summoned sage chakra.
"Enough games!" Deidara yelled, and threw forward his bombs.
Immediately Kakashi and Shizune intercepted them, Kakashi shooting lighting and Shizune pinning them to tree trunks with her senbon. The ones Kakashi blocked didn't explode, while Shizune's did.
"Earth jutsu, huh?" Kakashi muttered in a deep voice that had Haruhi even weaker in the knees. "Weak against lighting, isn't it."
Deidara growled. Then smirked.
"Tobi!"
Obito disappeared underground and Haruhi panicked, pulling Naruto closer to her and looking all around them. She fumbled with Tenten's pepper spray she let her borrow.
"Haruhi-sensei, I'm not weak!" Naruto yelled.
"Naruto you don't know what they can do to you!"
"And you do?"
She screamed as a voice spoke in her ear and yanked her away from Naruto and throwing her to the bridge's wooden planks behind the orange clad boy. The wind was knocked out of her, and she struggled to breath, hoping nothing was broken too badly. Naruto snarled, and tried to lash out with red lined hands, but it went right through, along with Tenten's and Sasuke's attacks.
The other four tried to make it over, but Deidara intercepted them faster then they could smash, cut, and fry with lighting.
Tsunade shouted as she was cut, and as Haruhi looked on with dread, she froze.
Oh.
Hemophobia. Haruhi had forgotten.
Kakashi jumped and intercepted an explosive with his chest.
Haruhi couldn't even scream as he was blown backwards and into Tsunade's still form.
She could only fumble with the pepper spray as she struggled to catch her breath as Obito approached them. He ignored her, the civilian woman with no great jutsu, as he tunnel visioned onto Naruto, becoming corporeal in order to grab him.
Haruhi adjusted the spray and pressed down.
Obito howeled, hands clawing at his mask and dancing in agony. Shizune punched the side of Obito's head with a chakra enhanced punch as she raced over to the children, and his mask cracked and fell off him in shards.
"Tobi!" Deidara shouted, and in the gap in the line of defense Shizune left when she ran over to them, threw dozen of clay bird bombs.
Haruhi sucked in a huge breath, grabbed Naruto while Shizune shielded Tenten and Sasuke, and dragged him over the edge and into the water.
She felt the explosion from under water, and ducked the shards of burnt wooden debri falling around her as she swam with all her strength away from the bridge.
They resurfaced half the lake away, Naruto gasping and sputtering for breath, the only sound heard in a stunned silence. The sound of fighting had stopped, and all the birds and animals had been chased away.
"..."
There Obito stood, irritated sharingan eye exposed, along with his face. Sasuke had frozen at seeing the obvious Uchiha features, Chidori fizzling away into nothing.
Kakashi's own mangekyou was activated, and they had all seen how it had perfectly matched Obito's.
Nobody moved. Not even Deidara, whose face was a peculiar mix of betrayal, shock, and awe as he stared at his partner. Shizune was still hunched over the two genin, jacket with holes in it from the debri and encrusted with blood from where she had healed herself. Tsunade had paused mid kneel, Jiriaya mid hand-seal, and Kakashi-
He was frozen. A thousand traumas passing along his masked face as he stared at Obito's naked one from his place half-way from the ground. He couldn't seem to believe his eyes as they roved over the visage of his former teammate.
"...Obito?"
The man said nothing, only wiping his no doubt stinging eye even as he tensed up at the name.
Deidara threw three bombs and Tsunade swatted them aside just before they reached the rest of the bridge with Shizune and the genin on it.
Obito jumped back to Deidara, and in a swirl of his mangekyo, they disappeared.
Everyone stayed frozen, Haruhi floating Naruto in her lap, until Kakashi's eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed.
"Cover his sharingan!" Haruhi bellowed. Shizune sprang over and pulled down his mask, and Haruhi began to swim back over, Naruto clinging to her to stay afloat.
"I-I thought Itachi and I were the only Uchiha left!" Sasuke said, trembling. He clung to Tenten as Tsunade pulled away to treat Kakashi. Shizune and Jiraiya brought up the rear, and they finally crossed to the other side.
Haruhi splashed out of the water and found herself with three kids in her arms.
"Who is Obito? And why did their eyes match?" Tenten asked, pulling away to look around the area.
"He was Kakashi's teammate. The one who gave him his eye." Sasuke's eyes widened in understanding. Kakashi had, at Haruhi's prompting, told him this story so Sasuke would feel assured that Kakashi didn't steal his eye.
Jiraiya shot her a warning glance to shut her mouth, but Haruhi only raised her chin.
"You all need to keep quiet about Obito or whomever he may be. And about Naruto's...status."
Naruto flinched, fists clenching into her shirt as Tsunade kneeled over Kakashi and froze. He was bleeding from where the bridge shards had cut him and from the explosion.
Shizune rushed to her master's side, and seemed to be about to take over the healing, before Tsunade gently stopped her, and with shaking hands began to heal Kakashi-starting with his chest.
Haruhi recognized an apology when she saw one.
Tsunade carefully transferred chakra into Kakashi's system from her own, and moments later, He stirred.
Haruhi hurried over to his side, dripping water behind her.
"I see you're still skipping medical check-ups, huh?" Tsunade commented neutrally. "Sakumo always complained about your distaste for doctors. You've got plenty of old injuries here. Some damage from Chidori as well. "
Kakashi tensed up at his father's name before relaxing at Tsunade's lack of hostility. He smiled at Haruhi. Before bolting upwards.
"That was Obito!" He croaked."That was his eye! His face! What is he doing?!" He struggled to get up, but Tsunade held him down.
"We don't know, but they're gone now. And even with a chakra transfusion, you still need to recover."
"He was dead. I saw him die. He was crushed." Kakashi said, the life draining from his voice as he emotionally shut down.
"I know you did. We're going to figure this out." Tsunade soothed, helping him stand to his feet robotically.
"I would like that." Sasuke said thinly, clutching his kunai.
They walked to Konoha in silence. Haruhi was by his side the whole way, but this time, they did not hold hands. It was like someone had pulled down a shutter behind his eye. No light reflected from them.
Hours later, when the gates appeared on the horizon, Tsunade finally spoke,
"You know, Hatake, That eye uses up over 30% of your chakra when dormant, and 60% when in use. If you'd allow, I can decrease that down to 10% dormant, and 25% when in use. Can also teach you how to ink chakra storage seals around your eye, so you have an extra reserve to tap into.
Kakashi showed the first signs of life in hours. He put his hand over his Sharingan eye before turning to look at Tsunade.
"I think I'd like that, thank you."
He smiled, before becoming serious.
"Something tells me I'm going to need it, if I want to get to the bottom of this."
Suprise! It was Deidara and Tobi! I be you weren't expecting that!
Oh goodness! Obito exposed! I wonder what the consequences will be? i can't believe Haruhi pepper sprayed him!
And I'm glad some of you caught Haruhi's hypocrisy last chapter. Her crush on Tsunade really did make her treat Tsunade better than Jiraiya. I am trying to write a complex flawed OC after all. But then again, Jiraiya is way worse than Tsunade is.
Question of the chapter: What do you think the consequences of this will be?