Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The day they traveled to the past, Obito woke up in his apartment alone.

The old beat-up comforter slipped down his form as he sat up and peered around the room in shock. His mind barely registered the familiarity of his old bed, the nostalgic tan color of his walls, and the precious picture frame of his team that sat on his dresser.

Forget the astonishing fact that he was small again, or that he couldn’t feel the fake limbs, or that he had both of his original eyes. All he could think was one thing.

Where is she?!

His partner, the only person he had left in the world, was nowhere to be seen. Retracing his steps, Obito felt a rush of pain bang against the walls of his head as memories of everything that had transpired flickered to the forefront of his mind.

Kakashi. Rin. Madara. Minato-sensei. Akatsuki. The Fourth Shinobi War.

Rin was gone. Rin died.

And Kakashi. Kakashi died too. Eventually. They all died eventually. Everyone he ever allowed himself to care about.

But Naruto …

Did she not make it?

The Uchiha leapt from his bed and ran around the apartment frantically, before rushing out the door without changing out of the shorts and t-shirt he had been sleeping in. It felt weird, running with short limbs again. With limbs that were his own, even. It was strange seeing out of two eyes that belonged to him and solely him.

But none of that mattered. Not really. Not when he couldn’t find her.

Shoving past people and through the streets of Konoha like a madman was the least of his concerns at the moment. He didn’t even acknowledge the monument in the distance adorned with sculptures of three Hokage heads instead of five.

Obito didn’t know where to search. He didn’t know how this whole time-traveling thing was supposed to work in the first place. How was he supposed to find her? How was he supposed to-

Pathetically he tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground, wisps of dirt floated into the air and obscured his vision for just a moment.

“Hey, are you alright?”

It was a quiet voice, full of concern nonetheless, and Obito wanted above all else for it to have been Rin. Or for the love of kami let it be Naruto.

But Naruto never spoke in soft tones, not really. She was brash and loud, obnoxious but empathetic and kind. Her quiet tones were reserved only for times of mourning, of sadness and death. Maybe sometimes she’d wake up groggy and soft-spoken, her voice feather soft and warm, as the morning light created a halo over her blonde hair. But those moments had been few and far between, especially when the last remaining members of humanity tended to wake up stiff and alert, senses powered to the max in fear of Kaguya finding them.

When Obito lifted his head, it wasn’t Naruto or Rin. A woman with ginger hair and wide eyes offered her hand to him. Ginger.

Not blonde.

Obito ignored the concerned citizen – the woman with hair just a tinge brighter than Rin’s, but no other familiarities to speak of. He launched himself off the ground, running past her, through a crowd of onlookers, and towards the outskirts of the market.

He had to find her. But where in the world could she be? Where else could he look?

Obito allowed his legs to do the work. They took him every which way, his brain empty of any concrete thought. It felt like hours as he searched and searched, his throat dry, his face haggard, and his palms littered with little crescents.

Ah. The sun was high in the sky now. It was super bright and so, so similar to his partner. Obito craned his neck and stared past his fingers at the yellow ball of warmth until the sun was obscured by splotches of dark green.

Obito stumbled a bit, and found his eyes wandering away from the light. He had stopped running. Where exactly was he going? The greenery around him sparked a tinge of familiarity, but Obito’s slow mind couldn’t make the connection until his eyes landed on the gray molded rock in the distance.

Yes. Yes. The Memorial Stone. Kakashi’s second home. Obito had seen his old teammate linger around the stone many times before … before …

The future?

Kami, he wanted Kakashi. Needed Kakashi. His teammate turned enemy, turned tentative ally, turned intrinsically linked companion … he’d know what to do. He’d know where to find her. He cared for her, too. He’d know-

Wait. No.

Kakashi died.

Kakashi was dead.

And Obito was alone. So, so alone.

And Naruto. She was gone too. She was gone and nowhere to be found and Obito was alone. He’d been alone for so long. He should be used to this feeling of emptiness. He shouldn’t need people like he needed them. This powerful guttural feeling in his stomach that cried out for warmth shouldn’t have so much control over him.

But he couldn’t his emotions. He couldn’t help the panic, the feeling of being hollow. He couldn’t live like this anymore. He couldn’t. Not after everything. Not after finally connecting with Kakashi again. Not after honoring Rin’s memory. Not after finding a friend in the one person who should hate him the most. He couldn’t go back to that. He needed her. He needed someone.

Rin’s death flashed before his mind. Minato-sensei. Kushina. Kakashi’s motionless corpse.

He couldn’t, he couldn’t, he couldn’t-

Obito’s rapidly beating heart skipped as his eyesight blurred and his pupils burned. A gasp fell from his lips, followed by a cry of pain.

The ache wasn’t solely from his sharingan swirling to life, followed by the rapid transition to mangekyo. No, this was emotional pain that Obito hadn’t felt in a very long time. Through his tears he tried to blink the red away and laid his cobalt eyes upon the memorial stone once more. It was close enough to touch now.

His parents were on this stone. But he didn’t care. He didn’t know them. Rin had once been carved in there, along with Minato-sensei.

Kakashi never had the chance to receive the same treatment.

And Naruto …

Wherever she was, Obito pleaded that Minato-sensei’s daughter was still alive. He didn’t want to feel anymore guilty than he already did. He refused to be the sole survivor, the only one to survive when he was the least deserving of them all.

A waterfall of tears gushed down his face.

“Oh, Obito …”

He barely had time to register someone calling out to him, so gently and comforting. The next thing he knew, Obito was in the newcomer’s arms and instantly he could tell who it was. That smell was unmistakable, the warmth was irreplaceable, that voice was one-of-a-kind.

Minato-sensei …

The living one. Not an edo tensei. The actual Namikaze Minato. He held Obito so tenderly as the Uchiha boy released his tears. When he had attacked Konoha all those years ago, he had prepared himself to face his sensei. To take his life if he had to. And he did.

But now … Kami how much he wished he could take it all back. He had been so deluded. So dumb.

But now, Delusional mass murderer Obito was reduced back to Crybaby Obito as he snuggled deeper into his sensei’s embrace.

He stayed there for what felt like hours but was more likely just a few minutes. He basked in Minato-sensei’s warmth and sniffed away the tears. Eventually he had to let go and look into his sensei’s eyes. The same person he had been responsible for killing. He could do this. He had to. Maybe if he looked up, he could find Naruto in his eyes.

“Let’s get you home,” Minato-sensei murmured. “We can train with the others tomorrow. How about it?”

Obito nodded, still too much of a baby to look up. Unsurprisingly, the kind-hearted Namikaze took no offence and gently led the man-turned-boy home with a hand on his shoulder to direct him. It was a slow and long walk back, all the while Obito tried to keep his sniffling to a minimum. Minato-sensei said nothing, only offering a comforting squeeze every few minutes.

By the time they made it back, Obito’s cheeks had gone back to being a bit pale, but the evidence of his crying was evident in the wrinkles around his eyes.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Obito,” Minato-sensei said. “And I’m always here if you need to talk or a shoulder to lean on.”

It wasn’t a question but Obito felt he should nod regardless. How nice it felt to be cared for. And how even more horrible it made Obito feel.

Minato hesitated for a brief moment, before flickering away and Obito finally raised his head. With a long sigh he trudged up the stairs and opened his door. In his panic he’d forgotten to lock the door.

Closing it behind him, Obito wondered if anyone stole anything. It was fine if they did. It was the least he deserved.

“Ah! You’re back!!!” came an obnoxiously loud cry of excitement.

Blinking rapidly, Obito looked up and met blue. A brightly lit sky greeted him and poured just a little bit of that brightness into his own cobalt ones. The Uchiha could physically feel as some of the crushing weight and ache that had been consuming him, lifted from his person.

In the middle of his living room, was Uzumaki Naruto.

But not as he remembered her.

She stood before him as a young girl, her clothes from the future falling loosely around her smaller frame. Beyond that, her hair stayed in their two messy pigtails and her skin remained tan. The all-too familiar whisker marks sat evenly on top of her cheeks.

Despite the weird change in height, Obito was so, so happy to see his partner again. The only other person left who shared in his pain.

In an instant she was in his arms, having ran to him when he didn’t seem to be making any other moves forward. “Dammit, Obito-san! Don’t go wandering off. I didn’t know where to look!”

You idiot … “I should be saying that to you.” Obito eventually found his voice.

After a moment of silently holding onto each other and reassuring themselves that this was real, Obito pulled back. He had never been one for hugging. Not after Kannabi Bridge anyway. This was an extreme circumstance.

“Where were you?” Obito’s voice came out a bit raspy, as though the sobs from earlier were threatening to come back and rack his throat.

“That’s what I wanna know,” Naruto huffed, still holding onto him. Her smaller hands clutched deeply into the fabric of his shirt. “I woke up in a tree, dattebayo! And you were nowhere to be found!”

“I woke up in bed. I thought … I thought you’d show up right next to me, but when I couldn’t find you I-” went crazy and almost upturned the whole village looking for you “- left to search.”

Naruto frowned. “But I went to look for you! I kinda remembered where you lived from your memories. Or, well, Kurama did.”

“Kurama made it?”

“Yeah! You wanna talk to him?”

Obito cringed at the thought. “I don’t … think that’s a good idea.”

Naruto seemed offended for a moment, but soon her expression cleared, and she nodded in understanding. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. Kurama says he’d rather die than speak to you, too.”

And then, the two of them sat down and began to plan.

Obito, who had actually been alive at this point in time, remembered very little about the inner workings of the village. It wasn’t until he began working as Madara that he educated himself on politics within Konoha and outside of it.

“I only have two certainties,” Obito told his blonde companion as they sat idly atop the rumpled comforter of his bed. “First, Danzo and his Root organization are alive and kicking.”

The information made Naruto scowl, anger burning brightly in her eyes. “Danzo …” she grumbled, probably thinking of the suffering the man had caused Sasuke.

Obito sighed. “You do realize that I’m also responsible for killing the Uchiha clan, right?”

“Stop reading my mind, jerk.” Naruto’s shoulders slumped forward, and she frowned his way. “Also, why do you feel the need to remind me of this every other week? I get, okay? You were terrible.”

Because I remind myself practically every two hours.

Obito did not respond verbally and instead carried on. “Danzo was responsible for a lot worse, anyway.”

“Don’t ignore me, dattebayo!”

At this point in time, Danzo was still kidnapping children from the orphanage and turning them into his own little soldiers. He was also sticking his nose in international politics. No doubt his dealings with Hanzo had taken effect.

“So … what’s the second thing that you’re certain of?” Naruto inquired, leaning in.

Obito scoffed. “Well, the Uchiha Clan is the most hated clan in the village.”

“But I thought everyone was wary of the Uchiha because they thought one of them unleashed the fox ...”

“Sort of.” The man turned boy scratched the back of his head. “Some of the citizens are thankful for the Uchiha Military Police Force, but others don’t take too kindly to their constant monitoring. Within the council too, Danzo has already begun stirring the pot.”

Naruto scoffed. “Danzo again, huh …”

Obito shrugged. “He’s just a sad old man, jealous of a power he can’t have.”

“You make it sound like he isn’t a threat, though!”

“He is. But against you, Kurama, and the former Juubi jinchiruki, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Naruto hummed at that, bringing her hands to tap quietly against her chin in thought. “I don’t know … I’m 12 again, and so are you. Do you think we can even fight like we used to?”

“Hm. Good point. Tomorrow we train.” Obito paused. “Wait, no. I think I have to meet with my team tomorrow for training.”

Naruto’s eyes widened in interest. “Your team! Oh wow, that means Kakashi-sensei and Dad!”

“Yeah …” the Uchiha sighed. “But don’t get too excited. I don’t think you should …” he hesitated for a moment and Naruto huffed, annoyance seeping from her person.

“What?! You don’t think I should meet them or something?” She glanced away. “I know that, dattebayo. Kurama already warned me about the dangers of my loved ones seeing me too soon.”

Obito nodded. For once he and the fox could agree on something.

“Besides, we haven’t even thought of a cover story for me, yet!”

“If we play this right, we shouldn’t have to make one at all,” Obito told her, already prepared for the protests that began to spill from her mouth. “I just think that we should be safe about this. I don’t want anyone taking notice of you. Danzo especially shouldn’t catch wind that you’re here.”

Naruto’s protests died a bit at that.

“And I honestly don’t want anyone asking questions. I don’t plan on being truthful when they finally do, and even then my coverups might not be enough to get them off our trail,” he explained. “Eventually someone is going to come to the wrong conclusions and possibly put us in even more danger.”

Naruto listened quietly until he was finished. With an insufferable sigh, she floated backward onto the bed, body sprawled out as if she owned the thing. “Fine. I get it, dattebayo. I’ll try not to draw attention to myself.”

“That’s all I ask,” Obito muttered. “If you need anything just ask me to get it for you.”

“Wha- but what about clothes?” Naruto spluttered and Obito suddenly inhaled sharply.

It’d been too long since he had to interact with a girl his age. He forgot how much work they were. As Naruto’s complaints reached his ears once more, he began to realize what he was really asking of her. Of himself.

She needed supplies that he would be too embarrassed to buy. Hell, the vendors probably wouldn’t even sell the stuff to him in the first place. Naruto needed to get her own feminine materials. There was no way Obito was going to get underwear and pads for her. Yikes.

“I take it back,” he quickly interrupted Naruto’s rant. “Please buy your own things. But use a henge at all times.”

“That’s what I thought!” she huffed, sitting back up to grin smugly at him. The look, however, quickly fell from her face. “U-Um … by the way, could I maybe borrow some money?”

Obito groaned. Shit. “I’m going to be paying for everything you do, aren’t I?”

“Not my fault I wasn’t born yet! What else do you expect me to do? Steal money from my parents?”

Obito refused to think that the idea was funny (even though it was). “No, Naruto. You’re not stealing money from your parents.”

“Exactly! So pay up, Obito-san~!”

Obito rolled his eyes. “I’ll give you money tomorrow. You can go shopping while I’m out with my team.”

My team … Obito’s thoughts repeated. He really wasn’t ready to see them again. He could barely even face Minato-sensei just a few minutes ago. The guilt had consumed him, ate away at any courage he once had.

Obito was a coward. A weak, pathetic, coward.

He had been given an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and he couldn’t even confront the people he had hurt, killed even. He didn’t deserve this … any of this.

Languidly, he glanced at Naruto.

She was the one who really deserved this second chance. Naruto wasn’t the “Child of Prophecy” for nothing. Not to say that Obito ever believed in that bull crap from Jiraiya, but …

If the title belonged to anyone, it was her. She was the reason Obito was still alive today. She was the reason they were even able to have this second chance at saving everyone from Kaguya, no matter how much Obito still believed that the shinobi world was incapable of knowing peace.

Tomorrow, he had to go to practice and lay his eyes on Rin again. Precious, dearly beloved, Rin.

I’ve missed her so much, Obito’s soul cried out.

And Kakashi. He’d be able to see Kakashi again. But …

But he still wasn’t worthy. He had done too many terrible things. How could he even dare to look them all in the eye and act like he was still Obito, the loud-mouthed, hyperactive, naive idiot that they called ‘teammate’?

“Hey.”

Obito glanced up and Naruto leaned forward, a hand on his arm steadying him.

“One day at a time,” she murmured softly. “We can do this. You can do this.”

Obito released a shaky breath as Naruto pulled him into another hug. He sank into her embrace like a weighted yet extremely stiff doll, needing her comfort but still so afraid of it at the same time.

This was another one of those things that he didn’t deserve.

She should hate him.

But she didn’t. And every day Obito would love and hate her for it.

Tenderly, she reached up and began softly carding her hand through his hair. He wasn’t a baby. He was a grown man twice her age, dammit. But he melted into her touch regardless. He didn’t deserve it, but he took it. Once again making him the lowest of the low.

The two of them fell asleep like that, curled together, providing one another warmth and comfort.

When Obito woke up the next day, he carefully extracted himself from her and knocked a hand gently against her cheek, thanking her for last night and everything else.

“If you knew what was good for you, you’d move that hand away before I bite it off.”

Naruto’s eyelids pried open, revealing red. The whisker marks on her cheeks frayed out a bit and her nails lengthened.

Ah. The Kyuubi.

“Nice to see you again, Kurama,” Obito drawled, pulling away.

“Hn. I don’t like it when you talk so familiar with me,” the fox grumbled, pulling Naruto’s body up in a sitting position.

“How’s Kurama-sama?”

“Watch the attitude, Uchiha scum.”

Obito sighed. “You wished to speak with me?”

Kurama huffed. “Not particularly … I just want to warn you that your main priority is to this child here.”

“You don’t think I don’t know that, already?” Obito scowled, his scorn on full display for the fox to see. Usually he would be more careful with how he spoke to Kurama, but he was tired. The Kyuubi had been breathing down his neck about this issue the whole time he and Naruto had been traveling together as they fled from Kaguya. “Your jinchuriki is the most important thing to me, right now. So, there’s no need to constantly remind me of my allegiances.”

The fox scoffed at him, voice blending with Naruto’s as he spoke, “We’re in the past now, idiot. That girl you love so much is still alive. But what happens if she dies again? How can you be so sure that you won’t fall back into your old ways?”

The question cut deep, and unfortunately, Obito had no concrete answer.

“This girl is more than just my jinchuriki. She is the future of this world,” Kurama continued, snappishly, “and you’d do well to not forget that fact.”

“I won’t-”

“Your duty is to protect her any way you can, even at the cost of your own life,” the fox ordered. “Even at the cost of others that you claim to love. Kaguya cannot win again.”

Obito’s body sagged at Kurama’s words. “… I know.”

After he said this, a moment of silence dragged on by. The Uchiha, like the coward he was, didn’t meet Kurama’s gaze and waited for more of the fox’s nagging. Fortunately, the next thing he heard was Naruto’s lighter voice, yawning to kingdom come.

The blonde girl stretched tall, mouth hanging open as even more ungodly noises came out. “Oh man! That was the best sleep I’ve ever had in ages!” she exclaimed, hand traveling under her baggy clothes and scratching above her left boob.

Obito quickly glanced away before standing to his feet. “I’ll see if I can make some breakfast,” he told her. “There should be an extra toothbrush somewhere that you can use.”

Naruto sluggishly nodded at Obito’s departing figure and the two began their second day in the past.

If he thought there’d be more to this whole time-traveling business, Obito had been sorely mistaken. After leaving Naruto with some money and a key to the apartment, he departed to the training grounds he vaguely remembered always meeting his team at.

Honestly, it was horrible.

He couldn’t look either of his teammates in the eyes.

Beautiful, strong, breath-taking, Rin had been so happy to see him at first. Apparently, he had missed training yesterday and when he hadn’t shown up after an hour or so, they all began to get really worried.

Of course, Kakashi denied this.

Kakashi.

Fuck. Obito remembered this version of him, the small elitist whose whole schtick was that the mission came before anything else. It was strange, witnessing him like this again, especially after spending years stalking him at the memorial stone and seeing him wracked with guilt and self-hate.

A small part of him missed the adult Kakashi. (That was a lie. It was more than a small part).

The older Kakashi had been someone who he would have gladly spent his last moments with if Kaguya hadn’t ripped that chance away from him. Just looking at him as a child now, elicited detailed memories of Kakashi’s death.

The same happened with all of his teammates really. Rin’s blood-soaked and lifeless body followed her like a shadow every time Obito tried to face her. And Minato-sensei …

Well. Obito’s self-hatred would blossom even more whenever the taller blonde smiled down at him.

He hated it. He couldn’t stand being near them for too long. Couldn’t stand how weak and shaken he felt.

As training continued into the later hours of the day, Obito tried to focus on his abilities. Could he still fight like he used to? His reflexes seemed only slightly slower, but it was hard to tell when sparring with someone he couldn’t even attempt to go all out with.

What about his sharingan? How quickly or efficiently could he activate and use it?

Most of these questions he’d have to answer when he went out training with Naruto later.

When the sun began to lower itself behind the cover of the trees, Team Seven finally finished. When Minato-sensei offered to take them out for dinner, worry etched in his features as his gaze traveled over Obito, the Uchiha denied the invitation and hurried home to Naruto.

There, he found that Naruto would no doubt clear him out of all his money by the end of the month if he didn’t go on any missions soon. He also realized that neither of them was that great at cooking. Obito wasn’t as hopeless as his time-traveling companion, but even then it was probably for the best that he didn’t push it.

They ate cupped ramen for dinner and promised to get some training in first thing tomorrow, before eventually clambering into bed, side by side, and falling into each other’s arms.

The next day, they woke up without any hassle, got dressed, ate more cupped ramen for breakfast (Obito gagged), and took off to an empty training ground.

Obito was careful not to draw too much attention to them as he led her through the back alleys and side streets to get to their destination. Once there, they began experimenting with what they could do.

It wasn’t all too surprising that they both lacked as much chakra control as they once had. Naruto didn’t feel comfortable relying on sage chakra or going into Kyuubi mode, and Obito found that his ninjutsu attacks seemed slightly weaker.

Relief and dread flowed through him when he activated his sharingan again. Of course, he still had that damn dojutsu. He vaguely recalled activating it on the first day that they arrived in the past. This … this was good. Obito had once relied on kamui for everything, and he didn’t think he could truly live life without it.

Naruto cheered for him before demanding they spar. “Time to see who’s the strongest!”

“… I don’t think this spar is going to be all that fair …”

“Shut up and fight me!”

The next few weeks, the two of them spent their time getting reacquainted with their new bodies and building up their stamina.

“I know you want to do something about Danzo, and eventually we’ll have to deal with Orochimaru,” Obito told Naruto as they were getting ready on their fifth day in the past. “All this training is necessary if we want to stand any chance against them.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it, dattebayo!”

About a month in, Obito was starting to feel more comfortable in his own abilities, a lot more than Naruto at least. She didn’t get as many opportunities as he did to train, considering most of his mornings and early afternoons were spent in the company of his team as Minato-sensei ‘taught’ them and had them spar against one another.

There were a few times that he had to leave the village to go on a mission (and Obito hated those times the most. He couldn’t stand not knowing Naruto’s whereabouts), but beyond that, most of his free time was spent with his time-traveling companion.

Whenever they weren’t together, Naruto spent her days playing around with seals on the floor and chatting with Kurama. Every so often she’d go to the market to buy a few things (with Obito’s money), but more often than not she didn’t leave the apartment. She was bored, Obito could tell. She was restless, too, which didn’t bode too well for them.

If left to her own devices for too long, the Uchiha worried that she might do something reckless.

“Fuck!” Naruto screamed as her latest attempt at a seal blew up in her face.

… Well, something even more reckless, anyway …

“Naruto, seriously, stop messing with seals on my living room floor,” Obito scolded her, not for the twelfth time.

“Fine,” she coughed. “I’ll go to the kitchen.”

“On any of the floors,” Obito re-iterated. “What is it for, anyway?”

Naruto pouted, but answered him, nonetheless. “I wanna create a seal that can hold all of the knowledge in my head. You know … in case I forget anything from the future.”

Obito frowned down at her, folding a pair of her new pants, and placing it beside the rest of her clean clothes. “You don’t need a seal for that. Just write it down in a journal.”

In response, Naruto stared at him as though he were an idiot.

And okay, maybe he was. “Right,” Obito muttered, realizing the problems with what he’d just said. Writing all that information down somewhere was not safe. Anyone could get their hands on it if they tried hard enough. Unless …

“You know,” he began. “You could write it all down and hide it in my kamui dimension.”

“Huh!” Naruto perked up, before suddenly shaking her head. “Nah! My idea is cooler!”

“… Please stop messing around with seals on my floor.”

She did not, in fact, stop messing around with seals on his floor.

It was still morning, when Naruto jumped out of the shower all cheery with wide and innocent smiles, her tan skin still flushed red from the humid bathroom and hair just a little damp. Obito furrowed his eyebrows at her insistence that he get in the shower right now, but he shrugged it off, not at all that interested in whatever plan she had today.

But of course. He should’ve known she wanted him out of the way so she could try some more fuinjutsu with Kurama. And because the fox hated him, he didn’t do anything to stop her.

The loud sound of the seal once again exploding in her face alerted Obito to what was really going on. Instantly, he was out of the shower and stomping over to her in anger.

“Naruto, I swear to kami-” he began, but instantly stopped upon seeing who else was in the room.

This was the day his team found out about Naruto.

He wasn’t exactly happy with this development, but Naruto’s whole world instantly brightened upon being able to meet her father and her Kakashi-sensei. When they all finally left, Naruto, still slightly starstruck, hummed happily to herself as she scrubbed at the burnt floorboards.

It was her punishment for going behind his back, but because of what had transpired that day, she didn’t seem to mind. Every so often, she would giggle to herself.

“Dad looked kinda cool, dattebayo,” she told him later once they were in bed.

“Yeah, Minato-sensei was-”

“Is.”

“-is amazing,” Obito corrected himself.

“And,” she continued. “Maybe now that they’ve seen me and everything … I could, uh, go out more? As myself?”

Fuck, Obito hated that she even had to ask. Of course, it was smart to lie low. They had both agreed that it was the right thing to do. But Obito felt terrible that she had to hide away from a village that was still more of a home to her than it was to him at this point.

“Yeah, Naruto,” he replied, turning away from her to stare up at the ceiling.

A triumphant huff of laughter escaped her mouth. “Ichiraku Ramen here I come,” she murmured happily.

A small smile tugged at his lips.

After a few more minutes of silence, Naruto squirmed a bit on her side of the bed. The bed shifted and groaned under her awkward movement, and after a while, the blonde finally faced her Uchiha partner and spoke her mind, “So, uh, that was Rin-chan …”

Obito didn’t meet her gaze. “Yeah. That was her.”

Naruto hesitated. “It’s obvious she really cares about you …”

He didn’t respond.

“Honestly, she made it really hard to get angry at her.”

This made Obito’s eyebrows scrunch up in confusion. Quickly he turned to look at her.

As his eyes pinned her down, Naruto squirmed once more. “Just … I felt kinda annoyed by how much she put Kakashi-sensei through.”

Obito blinked and Naruto sighed in annoyance.

“I’m just saying that if you know a teammate has a guilt complex about saving his teammates, then you probably shouldn’t just go and jump in front of his ninjutsu like that, dattebayo!”

“How do you-”

“I saw your memories, remember?” she huffed and glanced away. “I don’t think I ever wanna see that look on Kaka-sensei’s face ever again.”

And, well, Obito could understand where she was coming from. Rin’s death had broken Kakashi in a very similar fashion to Obito’s ‘death’. At least with both him and Minato-sensei, Kakashi barely had much control over what had happened. But Rin … well, Kakashi’s hand was the one that had driven deep through her chest.

The memory of that night made Obito tremble. He hated seeing her death, couldn’t stand it. But maybe there should have been more than one reason why Obito was appalled by the scene.

Something within Kakashi had died that night and the copy-nin would never get it back.

“It was pretty cruel,” Naruto muttered.

“True,” Obito eventually conceded. “But what else would you have had her do?”

Naruto went silent at the question. No doubt her mind went to the same place Obito’s had. “She wasn’t able to take her own life,” he told the blonde. “There was no other choice. Not one I can see anyway.”

Naruto could have said a plethora of different things in response to that: “You always think there’s no other choice! How do you think you were able to convince yourself that the Tsuki no me was the only solution to bringing about peace?!” or maybe, “There’s always another option, you just have to look hard enough!”

But unsurprisingly, she didn’t say any of this. Instead, she snuggled closer to him and sighed. “I guess you’re right,” she murmured softly, and Obito’s tense shoulders relaxed. “She’s real pretty, you know? No wonder you have a crush on her.”

Immediately, his shoulders tensed back up. “Can you not?”

Naruto laughed. “Just saying that you have good taste.” Her nose then scrunched up. “Actually, then again, you also had a crush on Kaka-sensei and I wouldn’t exactly give him stellar reviews.”

Obito immediately shot up and spluttered at this declaration. “I- What?! I don’t- didn’t-”

“Hey, I’m just calling it like I see it,” Naruto muttered, judging him harshly for his denial. “You followed him around a lot, kinda like you did Rin-chan. Only you were always trying to make him acknowledge you and praise you.”

The blonde girl chuckled as she continued.

“Trust me, I’ve been there. I was like that with Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme back in the day.”

“I didn’t have a crush on Bakakashi,” Obito growled, his cheeks burning at just the thought. No, no, no, he refused to allow Naruto to bring up old memories and feelings. He refused. “And I didn’t have a crush on Rin, either. I love … I loved her. She was my dearest friend.”

He released a melancholic sigh. “Rin was always there, always looking out for me.”

And I wasn’t even fast enough to protect her …

“What I felt for her was more than just some passing attraction. It was a deep love, something so entrenched in me that I could feel it in my bones. And when her light was snuffed out from this world, something in me broke. The very foundation that I relied upon to live collapsed in on itself.” Obito scoffed. What good was a world that wouldn’t allow people like Rin to live in it? What was this injustice? Why was life so cruel?

A moment of silence passed between them until Naruto finally spoke again. “I guess I don’t really get romantic love,” she muttered. “But I do understand love in general. I think I get where you’re coming from too. Sure what I had on Sakura was just a crush for awhile, and maybe it was like that with Sasuke too. But regardless, I still loved them, you know? Now that they’re gone I-”

Her breath hitched.

“I felt empty for so long,” she sniffed. “Even Kakashi-sensei died, and … and they were all I had left, dattebayo. I don’t want to lose my loved ones again. I don’t want to feel that pain. That same crushing feeling I had in my chest when Ero-sennin died … it still haunts me.”

Her dismayed whispers dissolved into sobs that wracked her small body. Obito quickly pulled her close, allowing her head to press into his chest as the tears fell.

His grip around her tightened as he molded her frame against him, refusing to let her go anytime soon. True, he wasn’t one for hugs. But Naruto deserved it. She deserved it all. And it pained him how much she still had to suffer for his mistakes. His dumb, stupid mistakes.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, his body pulled taut with the feeling of regret.

The girl in his arms shook her head through her sobs.

“I’m sorry,” Obito repeated.

Once again, she shook her head and pounded at his chest.

“No,” Naruto bit out before wrapping her arms around him and squeezing tightly.

Stop apologizing, her actions demanded.

Obediently, he shut up and continued to hold her through the night.

When they both woke up the next morning, neither of them brought it up.

Chapter Text

It’s strange. When Naruto had been twelve the first time around, she couldn’t walk one mile through the village without receiving countless glares from merchants, civilians, and ninja alike. But now, as she sauntered through the market district on a grocery run, she almost felt invisible. A few people glanced her way, but it was mostly a curious glance rather than a hate-filled sneer. Naruto hadn’t been entirely sure why that was at first, but she had a feeling they looked because of her hair.

A small child about six or seven later confirmed this by running up to her and whispering gently that she had “Real pretty hair, nee-san!” before she ran off to her mother while the surrounding onlookers all nodded along in agreement.

Naruto didn’t think her hair was anything to sniff at though. Sometimes it was unkept and unbrushed, looking more akin to a pile of straws than anything else because Naruto couldn’t bother with it. Those were the days that Obito went to training first thing in the morning instead of sitting down with her and methodically brushing through her tangled blonde locks.

It wasn’t that Naruto didn’t know how to take care of her own hair. She did! Kami knew Sakura was constantly on her case about it back in the day. But Obito fussed over her a lot, so Naruto allowed him the honor of cleaning up the rat’s nest atop her head. Plus, the way he ran the brush through her hair was actually quite nice, as though he were a pro really. It almost made her ask him whether or not he had a secret sister Naruto (somehow) didn’t know about, but she knew not to pry. Normally she didn’t have as much tact, but she’d been with Obito for practically two years now and the older man was quite fragile about certain things.

Anyway, all of that was to say, Naruto’s hair wasn’t special. In any way. So, did they really have to glance at her so much?

“It’s the blonde color,” Kurama muttered within her mindscape. “You look like the Yondaime.”

“The future Yondaime!” Naruto corrected smugly.

“Whatever.”

And yeah, maybe Kurama had a point. Even Kakashi-sensei mentioned a couple of times in the past how much she resembled her parents, especially Minato. That’s also probably why Obito was so adamant about keeping her away from prying eyes. Anyone might be able to put two and two together and start asking the right questions.

But, even if Obito was right, Naruto still didn’t regret asking to go out without a henge that night after finally meeting the younger version of her father. She hated having to hide away. She hated not being free to be herself.

Regardless of the appreciative or curious glances, Naruto vastly preferred this than being cooped up in the apartment all day.

After buying a couple of vegetables and meat for soup (plus maybe a few cups of ramen), Naruto began her trek back home, marveling at the village as she did so. It was vastly different in some ways, but so similar in others. The market district for example had been a little bigger when Naruto was a kid, but she understood that this was wartime and Konoha wasn’t able to flourish at the moment with all of their efforts focused on winning battles and such. There were more parks in future!Konoha, too, so Naruto wasn’t surprised to find the children in this time playing around in the street instead.

One of the best things that was mostly the same no matter what time you were in, was Ichiraku’s. Naruto had dragged Obito there many times since he had given her the go-ahead to leave the apartment whenever she wanted. It was still so homey and warm. The ramen guy, Teuchi-jisan, was still super cool and friendly. And his ramen was still the best of the best! Honestly, she couldn’t imagine ending up in a past where Ichiraku’s hadn’t opened yet! A true nightmare indeed.

One of the steakhouses that Choji liked to frequent was apparently still around in the past too. Naruto wondered how many generations of Akimichi that place had served over the years. Probably a lot.

There were some other establishments that Naruto vaguely remembered from when she was a kid, but very few brought back good memories. She could somewhat recall being chased out of Tendo Grocers and the candy shop just down the street, all the while being screamed at by the manager and even the customers until she was far out of sight.

Don’t think about it, Naruto tried to tell herself. You may be a child again, but you’re safe now! That was the past, er, future.

Physically shaking her head, she straightened her shoulders and marched forward confidently. It was then that she caught sight of a dango stand just a few paces ahead. Obito liked dango. At least, he mentioned it once being something he wouldn’t mind eating again. Maybe she should buy him some as a gift? But wait. She was using his money. Did it really count as a present if he was technically the one paying for it?

Naruto hummed lowly as she stopped in front of the stand.  She should probably buy some anyway. Plus, she was kind of hungry. Obito wouldn’t scold her too much, right?

It was then that a picture of perfect clarity flitted across her memory.

It was a warm, sunny day. She sat with Sakura and Sai under the shade of a pastry parlor, dango in all three of their hands as they conversed with one another. Sakura was complaining about someone she had to deal with at the hospital while Naruto tried desperately to pay attention despite already forgetting what the pinkette’s rant was about halfway into the whole thing. Sai sat between them, inspecting his food as though it were poison. He hadn’t really been exposed to tasty confections like dango and mochi in his time under Danzo, so he was still somewhat wary of the treats.

Then suddenly, Ino-Shika-Cho were there, laughing and eating alongside them. Naruto eventually turned away from Sakura and Ino’s back and forth, and spoke to Shikamaru and Choji instead, trying to include Sai in the conversation, too, while she was at it.

Naruto had felt at peace there. Despite Sasuke still being gone and so, so many things going wrong around them, Naruto was grateful for moments like these. For her precious friends.

She missed it. She missed them.

“HEY! GIRLIE!”

The sudden shout instantly startled her out of her daydreaming.  A man with a blue apron, stark black mustache, and furrowed bushy eyebrows glared at her from behind the dango stall. “You gonna stand there and interrupt my business or are you gonna buy something?!” he growled.

Something inside Naruto churned unpleasantly, causing her to freeze up for but a moment. Then, without understanding why, she ran. She ran as fast as she could, as far away as possible.

“Get away you monster!”

“How dare you come here, freak!”

“Don’t ever come back again, you disgusting creature!”

The shouts and screams from her past echoed throughout her brain, bombarding her with painful and unwanted memories. Naruto had thought she was over it; that she was stronger now. The villagers who used to attack her with words or sharp objects couldn’t hurt her anymore. She was a strong kunoichi of the leaf, dammit!

But even as she thought this, her mind couldn’t stop racing, her feet wouldn’t stop running, and the rapid beating of her heart continued to escalate.

“Naruto! Calm down!”

She didn’t know where she was going but she needed to get home. She’d be safe there. Alone, but safe.

“You’re not alone, kit! You’re fine. Just calm. DOWN!”

The menacing shout from within caused Naruto to come to a complete stop, picking up dirt as her feet slid across the gravel. “K-Kurama?”

“Don’t speak out loud, idiot!” The fox seethed. “Just stop running and pull yourself together. You’re in the past, before you were even born. No one is coming after you with pitch forks or anything.”

Naruto nodded along, listening as Kurama’s voice grew softer with each passing second. “Sorry. I’m … I’m sorry,” she said.

Kurama went silent for a moment and Naruto sniffed a bit, finally noticing the tears that had been trailing down her cheeks. Ugh. How embarrassing!

“It’s alright, brat. Just … calm down. You’re safe for now.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Kurama. I lost myself for a minute there.”

The fox snorted. “Yeah, yeah. Just hurry up to that stupid Uchiha’s apartment before you damage the groceries even more.”

“Huh?”

“The meat, stupid. You should have refrigerated that shit ages ago,” Kurama deadpanned.

The blonde girl cursed before rushing back home. “Dammit Kurama, how are you more on top of this stuff than I am?”

“Simple. As a chakra beast, I’m just superior in everything.”

“Keep dreaming furball!”

“Kit, you can’t even cook properly.”

“YOU CAN’T EITHER!”

“Yes I can, you brat! Give me a clone and I’ll show you!”

“No way! What if Obito sees?”

“Keh. You’re just scared that I’d be better than you.”

“NOT TRUE, DATTEBAYO!”

Despite her refusal, however, Naruto ended up letting Kurama use a clone once they got home anyway. Unfortunately, he actually was a better cook than her.

When Obito slid into the apartment that night and was greeted with the delectable smell of freshly made dinner, he stared at his blonde roommate in suspicion.

“Did you make this?” he asked, hesitantly looking at his soup once the two of them were properly seated at the dinner table. “Because, no offence or anything, but … you can’t cook.”

“Asshole!” Naruto screeched; cheeks red in embarrassment.

Obito raised a silent eyebrow at her.

“Ugh! Fine! Yes! I didn’t make it, it was all Kurama,” she sullenly admitted.

“Please tell me you were careful and that no one was able to sense his chakra?”

“Of course, dattebayo! What do you take me for, an idiot?!” she cried as Obito clapped his hands together.

“Thanks for the dinner,” he recited before digging in.

“Uh, hey, Obito. You could at least deny it, dattebayo.”

She was promptly ignored again and with a pout, the girl turned to her food.

For a while, it was silent. That is, until Naruto loudly cleared her throat, gaining the Uchiha’s attention.

There was something she had wanted to bring up with her brunette companion for a while now. Call it naivety or sentimentality, but Naruto really thought that they should tell someone else about their situation. Obito was putting in a lot of effort to keep their status as time travelers a secret. But by being so careful, it also made it harder to get things done. Naruto wanted more than anything to try and put a stop to Danzo. He needed to be arrested for his crimes against Konoha and everyone else. She also wanted to figure out if Orochimaru was being his creepy snake self yet, or if it were possible to convert him before it was too late (although she knew Obito would be against trying to reason with the sannin). There was also Nagato and Konan. She had no idea what they were doing at this point in time and Obito had yet to mention it. A part of Naruto wondered if he was avoiding the conversation on purpose, but for the life of her she couldn’t understand why.

Lastly, she wanted to do something about Madara. Naruto didn’t necessarily think there was any saving or changing the elder Uchiha’s mind. He was so far gone in his anger and grief that he was still hellbent on revenge even after all this time. Naruto didn’t know how anyone could stay resentful for so long, but somehow Uchiha Madara had done it. And for that, he had to be stopped. Hell, Naruto was reluctantly willing to kill him if that’s what it took to save the entire shinobi world from his disastrous future deeds. (Honestly, she’d do anything to make it so Black Zetsu couldn’t carry out his plans to revive Kaguya.)

But in order to do any of this stuff, they had to act. Which they couldn’t do because they were just ‘children’ and how would it look if 12 year olds were suddenly extremely skilled in combat and were talking about getting rid of some of the most powerful people in the village?

Not only that, but Naruto was still technically unregistered. She couldn’t take any official missions, so that meant no legal means out of Konoha. And even if she did try to get registered as a shinobi of the village, it would draw too much attention to herself. They’d ask her questions she wouldn’t be able to answer.

Kurama once suggested asking Obito to use a genjutsu on the Hokage to make her an official ninja, but there was no way Naruto could do that to Jii-chan! It felt immoral and wrong to manipulate him like that.

With this dilemma at hand, Naruto thought it would be best to get some help from people who could actually make their mission easier.

“So, yeah. That’s why I think we should tell someone else!” Naruto finished explaining to Obito, scratching awkwardly at her chin as she waited for his response.

The Uchiha, who had been silently taking in her words until just now, placed an elbow on the table and cupped his cheek. “Okay, let’s say we go with your plan. Who would you suggest we talk to?”

“Um, maybe Jii-chan?” Naruto hummed. She only mentioned him because he was the first person off the top of her head, but now that she was thinking about it … “Or dad!”

“Definitely not,” Obito quickly shot her down. “First of all, the Sandaime is a terrible person to go to.”

“What? How?!”

“For one, don’t you remember whose incompetence it was that allowed for both Danzo and Orochimaru to continue their unspeakable acts?”

Naruto groaned. She hated to admit it, but he had a point. No matter how much she wanted to defend the man who had treated her kindly since she was a child, she couldn’t ignore how much tragedy befell Konoha during his tenure as Hokage. And sure, maybe there were things he couldn’t help, but his soft spot for his former teammate and student clouded his judgement, and people were harmed for it.

(Sasuke’s crazed state as he attempted to kill Sakura, flashed through her mind. Was Naruto really one to judge the old man?)

“Okay, but what about Dad? He’s smart! And amazing! He’d know how to help us!” Naruto tried. Right?

Obito instantly scowled. “No. Minato-sensei, can’t know.”

“But why-”

“Because it wouldn’t make a difference,” he snapped, causing Naruto to deflate. “There’s no telling if he’d even believe us anyway.”

She wasn’t exactly sure about that, but Naruto let the argument die. A part of her knew that a big reason for wanting to tell her Dad was so that she could finally be around him and get to know him better. In a way, it was little selfish of her, so she decided not to press it too much for now. Obito was usually right about these things anyway.

“Preferably we should recruit someone who could sit in on council meetings and sway opinion against Danzo,” Obito continued thoughtfully.

“Ugh, politics,” Naruto grumbled. She found it amusing how Obito instantly nodded in agreement with her.

“The bane of my existence really,” he muttered. “I’ve spent so much of my life manipulating people, including political leaders. But I will never like politics.”

“Here, here!” Naruto chimed in, tilting her glass of water in his direction. “Man, when it came to stuff like this, I always went to Shikamaru. He always knew what to do.” A sigh. “That guy was so cool it was annoying.”

A pause.

“Wait!” Naruto suddenly exclaimed; eyes cheerfully wide. “Shikamaru’s dad is alive right now, isn’t he?! Why don’t we just talk to him?!”

“Nara Shikaku, huh?” Obito mused. “He’s a little young right now, but still very tactical. I would expect nothing less from a Nara …”

Naruto leaned forward in anticipation, the chair below her squeaking as it scratched against the floorboards.

The Uchiha finally looked up from his musings, taking in her excited demeanor. He sighed. “Just, would you let me think about it?”

“How long is that gonna take, dattebayo? It’s not a bad idea and you know it!”

“It’s just, I want to be very c-”

“-careful about it, yeah I know.” Naruto huffed. “But at the snail’s pace we’re going we won’t be able to save anyone.”

Obito’s expression hardened. “I said I’d think about it.”

“Look, if we have a hard time convincing Shikaku-san we could always ask Ino’s dad to use his cool mind jutsu to check the truths of our claims-”

“But that would bring more people into it. The more people we tell, the less we can contain the secret.”

“But it’s Ino’s dad! He’s part of T & I. They’re whole schtick is secrets and stuff,” Naruto reasoned.

“And they also work directly under the Hokage who, at this moment in time, I would not trust to take care of a tadpole.”

“Jiji isn’t that bad, Obito,” Naruto bit out, offended on the older man’s behalf. “If it wasn’t for him-”

“If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t have gone through all of the trauma you experienced as a child. If he had done a better job maybe you wouldn’t have been treated so badly at the orphanage and by the other villagers,” Obito spoke, heatedly.

In anger, the jinchuuriki slammed her hands sharply onto the table. “This isn’t all on Jiji and you know it, dattebayo! If it hadn’t been for you I wouldn’t have grown up all alone with Kurama sealed inside me, in the first place! I wouldn’t have been treated like a monster and I wouldn’t have lost everything I knew and loved to Kaguya either!”

She regretted the words as soon as she’d said them.

Naruto didn’t blame Obito for everything even though she should. She understood his pain, she understood why he ended up the way he did. That didn’t make it right, but it did help her understand. And in the end, it also helped her forgive him.

She was just so restless and angry. It didn’t help that Obito was so opinionated about everything, either. Despite all his failings, the Sandaime truly did care about her. He protected her the only way he knew how. And sure, he probably failed in a lot of areas, especially in regards to Danzo and Orochimaru (the latter eventually causing his demise), but he was still, at his core, a good man and the Jii-chan that Naruto loved so much.

With a sigh, she tried to explain all of this to Obito, but as soon as she opened her mouth, the Uchiha silenced her with the swift cutting motion of his hand.

“You’re right,” he muttered, a storm raging behind his eyes. “Just … let me think about it. Please.”

Next thing she knew, he was standing up and putting his dishes away. Guilt tugged at her despite Kurama internally rolling his eyes.

“Screw the Uchiha’s feelings, gaki,” the fox grumbled, for which Naruto promptly ignored him.

“Obito,” she called out before he could walk away completely. The Uchiha halted in his steps but didn’t turn to look at her.

A frown tugged at her expression when she realized she was at a loss for what to say. She’d told him countless times already that she didn’t blame him, but he never believed her. Not once.

Honestly, she hadn’t known someone who hated themselves as much as Obito did (well, except maybe Kakashi-sensei. But Naruto hadn’t noticed until she was a lot older how many demons the silver-haired man kept in his closet).

With a sigh, she decided on, “We should go sparring tomorrow. Do you, uh, think we can use kamui? Or maybe there’s a training ground free?”

Obito stayed silent for a moment, causing Naruto to think that he perhaps wasn’t going to answer. Eventually, though, he glanced back at her and said, “We can go to the training grounds. I don’t want to overexert my sharingan.”

Awkwardly, Naruto nodded, “Right, got it!” and watched as Obito finally exited into the bathroom, a dark cloud hanging over him as he did so.

Naruto huffed at his departure. Every Uchiha is so freaking angsty, dattebayo! I can’t stand it! She internally griped despite knowing deep down that this time, his depressed state was all on her.

Kurama huffed. “That’s what you get for trying to care about them.”

“Hey! Just because you can hold a centuries old grudge doesn’t mean I have to!

“Keh, you’re too fixated on that Uchiha brat’s problems. You said it yourself. He’s the reason for all your suffering. Why go through the trouble of giving a shit about that piece of crap?”

Naruto deflated at the fox’s words. “I just … I can’t help it. We’re all we have left. Why bother with throwing fingers around?”

“Hmph.”

“Besides I …” Naruto bit her lip. “I really like Obito. He’s pretty cool despite his whole psychotic breakdown. And I get him. He used to be a lot like me, dattebayo.”

“Except you’re better than he ever was,” Kurama told her, softly. Before Naruto could deny this, the fox continued. “While he fell into despair, you kept going. No matter what, you wouldn’t give up on anything or anyone.”

He shot her a disgruntled look from within the mindscape, before hiding his face in the warmth of his arms. “Thank you for that.”

Amused by his embarrassment, a bright grin fell upon Naruto’s features. “Hehe, no problem!”

The next day, Naruto woke up to an empty bed. It didn’t come as too much of a surprise considering Obito couldn’t even bring himself to look at her after last night’s … disagreement. Around midnight she’d tiptoed her way into the dark room to sleep, only to be greeted by his back. She tried not to take any offense to it. He had every right to be upset with her.

Instead, it took her hours to fall asleep only to be awoken by terrifying visions of Kaguya and Black Zetsu. Even while hiding in a past long before their resurrection, Naruto could never escape them.

Since Obito wasn’t around, she tied her massive head of hair into a large ponytail before throwing on long navy-blue shorts and a peach jacket. For breakfast she poured herself a bowl of cereal, washed the dishes, and then eventually headed out.

Most likely Obito was with his team. They usually spent their mornings training together if there weren’t any missions. Naruto just assumed that the two of them could practice later in the evening, which suited her just fine really.

She had something she wanted to check out alone anyway.

Trudging through the village, Naruto slipped her way down empty or narrow roads, avoiding as many people as possible. Sometimes she’d still get turned around – this wasn’t her Konoha after all – but eventually made it to her destination.

The Nara District.

“You sure about this, brat?” Kurama inquired from within the mindscape. “That stupid Uchiha brat’s gonna be pissed if he finds out.”

“Weren’t you the one who said I shouldn’t worry about his feelings?”

“And I stand by that. But obviously you can’t help yourself. So when he eventually finds out and you want to cry about how upset he is, don’t you dare look at me.”

“Stop acting like I’m a whiny idiot! I know what I’m doing,” she declared. “If Obito gets angry then that’s just how it’s gonna be. Now stop distracting me!”

Kurama huffed at his jinchuuriki whose gaze roamed the streets of the surprisingly open district. Clan and non-clan members alike bustled about the area, paying Naruto no mind as she sauntered on through.

“Why don’t you just try to track the Nara’s chakra?”

“Because I don’t remember Shikaku-san’s chakra signature. It’s been a while you know?”

“Tch. Useless.” Kurama clicked his tongue, ignoring the offended “Hey!” from his partner. “Then is your plan to just wander about until you, by some chance, find the Nara you’re looking for?”

Naruto blushed. “It’s not like I don’t have the time.”

Her faux calm attitude instantly broke, however, upon catching a glimpse of Nara Shikaku in the flesh, walking right past her, along with another Nara clansman at his side. She abruptly stopped and did a doubletake.

“No way you’re that lucky.”

“Way.”

There was no mistaking it. It really was Shikaku, Shikamaru’s dad and the future Jounin Commander. Naruto hadn’t had many dealings with him in the past, but she could recognize those features anywhere. The apple really didn’t fall far from the tree, huh?

She tried not to feel too melancholic as memories of Shikamaru bombarded her thoughts. Instead, she shook herself out of it and commenced her stalking.

“If you get caught you owe me something.”

“Seriously, Kurama?”

“What’s the matter, gaki? Do you plan on getting caught?”

“… No. Fine, and if I win, you have to owe me something.”

“Keh.”

“Now shut up and let me focus.”

Relying on her ninja training, Naruto suppressed her chakra signature and bled into the crowd. Never taking her eyes off her target, she slipped through what pockets of space she could find with grace she didn’t use to always have.

Eventually they made their way out of the Nara district. Frowning, Naruto stayed back for a moment as the two men she was following walked through the more open roads of Konoha. With a “tsk” she took to the buildings, hopping along four structures behind them as they made their way to a very familiar piece of red architecture.

Of course he was heading to the Hokage tower. Either Shikaku had a mission today or he was already taking up his duties as Jounin Commander.

He seems kinda young though …

“Says the girl who was fighting moon goddesses at the age of seventeen.”

“Fair point.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“At first I wanted to talk to him …” Naruto trailed off. “But now I’m having second thoughts. Maybe I should just observe for now. Plus, he’s with some other guy, and I don’t want to risk revealing myself in front of someone I don’t even know.”

Kurama made a startled noise in his throat. “It’s amazing how you’re capable of using your brain sometimes.”

“KURAMA!!!” she seethed, unaware of her chakra spiking ever so slightly.

“Too easy, gaki. Stop letting me rile you up and pay attention to your prey.”

Stupid fox, Naruto groaned to herself, before considering Shikaku again. It was then that she noticed he had stopped walking a couple yards from his destination. His companion turned to him in with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s up?” the other man asked as Shikaku’s gaze lifted to the sky. He slowly peered right, then left, as if looking for something.

Naruto frowned and concentrated as well but found no foreign or strange chakra in the air. She hadn’t smelled or heard anything peculiar either. Regardless, Shikaku continued his analysis of the area, his clan-mate finally inspecting their surroundings as well with a hard-set mouth and sharp gaze.

Seriously, there was nothing they had to worry about. Naruto made sure to double check and there wasn’t a single enemy-nin insight. She hadn’t even felt the slight tingle of repressed chakra that usually accompanied root agents whenever they were snooping around. The only thing around, really was-

Me.

She retreated immediately.

It wasn’t until she managed to get back to the apartment undetected, that Naruto released the breath she had been holding in. Fuck, he noticed me.

Since when were Naras so adept at sensing chakra? Naruto had been so sure that she’d concealed herself well. Despite her massive chakra reserves, or more specifically because of them, Naruto had spent a long time perfecting her chakra control, especially since Kaguya was always watching (always sensing and waiting to strike). Kakashi-sensei and Sakura had been a great help when she was honing this skill. Even Obito, who had large chakra reserves himself, took lots of time to help her conceal her very obvious chakra signature from the enemy.

How did he …

“It’s because you’re rusty, gaki,” Kurama spoke up from within the mindscape.

“But I’ve been training!”

“Yes, you have. And you’re a lot stronger than you ever were at 12-years-old,” he agreed. “But there’s only so much your body can accomplish in this short amount of time. Even your Uchiha brat knows this. I’m sure even you have noticed how little he uses his kamui abilities.”

Which was true, Naruto had noticed this as well. Most of their training took place outside and even their top-secret conversations tended to happen inside the apartment with a silencing seal rather than within the kamui dimension. Back in the day, or technically the future, Obito used his sharingan for practically everything. But now it was only reserved for sparring with Naruto, and even then it was used sparsely.

“Just give it a minute, kid,” Kurama continued. “Unlike when you first started out as an obnoxious little brat, you’ve already been working your chakra to the max. You’ll be able to use tailed beast mode in no time, so don’t be too concerned.”

“… Yeah, you’re right. Just gotta keep training my body is all!”

“Exactly.”

Thankful for the reassurance, Naruto approached the chakra beast and ran a hand over his snout. Matching grins spread across their faces as years of partnership made itself known through the fox’s easy acceptance of her soft touch.

Eventually, however, Kurama’s grin widened almost menacingly.

“Now,” he began with glee, “I believe you owe me something?”

What she owed him apparently had to be collected at a much later date.

“You’re scaring me, Kurama. Just tell me!”

“Nope. You’ll see when the time comes.”

“You suck!”

“Not as much as your chakra control right now.”

And honestly? That was a low blow, even for Kurama. Before she could say this however, Obito showed up to the apartment, a disgruntled look on his face. Naruto tried her best to not look suspicious and was quick to ask him if he was ready to get a few spars in. Despite the awkwardness hanging over them, the Uchiha nodded in the affirmative.

Later, once they had made it to the training grounds, their sparring commenced. The area around them was quiet, the greenery whistling softly in the slight breeze with no animals or humans in sight. The clearing they had decided on wasn’t one that Naruto remembered ever visiting in the past (or future for that matter), and it was a shame too. It was the perfect spot to train with lots of space and no interruptions.

Naruto glanced at Obito, who had just jumped back from one of her kicks. “I think we should try going all out here,” she suggested.

He landed and quirked an eyebrow her way. Not so oddly enough, Obito hadn’t spoken much even after they decided to train together.

“This is a great spot,” she continued airily. “Let’s just let loose a little.” After a moment of Obito’s silence, she sighed dramatically. “We need to get better. If we hold back all the time, it’ll take too long to get back to how we were before.”

“… True,” he finally muttered. “But we should still be careful with how much chakra we use.”

“Sure, sure.” Shikaku’s sudden alertness to her presence earlier came back to memory, but Naruto waved it off. Instead, she focused on trying a different approach to convince her Uchiha companion. “It’s just … and I’m kinda spit-balling here, but perhaps you think, maybe, that you can’t take me on at full power?”

Internally, she cackled. Obito liked to act mature, and he was to some extent. But he was also a shinobi, and he had his pride. From a distance, Naruto could see his face pinch together in annoyance and she grinned gleefully at how quickly he rose to the bait.

He knew what she was doing. The knowing look he gave her was clear as day, but like all ninja, Obito just couldn’t help himself. “I can take you.”

Naruto shrugged. “Okay, if you say so. I just think, now that we’re both the same age and all … well, I’m pretty sure I was a lot stronger at 12 than you were.”

He scoffed. “Oh really?”

“Yep! I don’t think I gotta remind you that I saw your memories, dattebayo. You weren’t too good at anything, were you?”

“And don’t you forget that I witnessed your screwups too,” Obito shot back. “I was walking up trees at nine years old.” He paused and faked serious contemplation. “How old were you when you encountered Zabuza again? I distinctly remember Kakashi teaching you to tree climb on your mission to Wave of all things …”

“He thinks he’s funny,” Kurama commented with a huff.

“Asshole,” Naruto agreed. “We’ll see who’s really the better 12-year-old!” she exclaimed, pointing vehemently at her opponent.

“Saying that makes you sound even younger than a 12-year-old,” Obito sighed.

“Whatever, dattebayo! Just bring it!”

The Uchiha lowered into a stance. “If that’s what you want.”

Naruto grinned in delight, but before she could reply, he was already going in for the attack. She was quick to dodge, but it didn’t take long for him to catch up with her.

“Kage no bunshin!”

Obito allowed a small smile on his face as his companion’s signature jutsu formed countless more of her. In a show of confidence, he straightened his stance and beckoned her closer.

Unsurprisingly, her grin widened, and their battle once again commenced.

Midday soon turned to late afternoon, and the burning sun began to fade into the far reaches of the West. Despite this, the two time travelers danced around each other, unleashing attack after attack, neither one letting up. Sweat flew through the air as shoulders and arms ached from overuse. But that didn’t stop either of them from continuing their fourth spar of the day.

Naruto couldn’t remember the last time she had so much fun. When she was younger, training felt fulfilling and fighting felt exhilarating. But as the years went by, being a ninja felt arduous and hard to bear.

Obito felt it most, though, which didn’t surprise Naruto considering how much longer he had been a shinobi. Back when they were in the future, when Obito was a lot more open with her, he had mentioned his fatigue and how tired he was of fighting.

“I want to rest,” he had murmured a week after Kakashi’s death. When she heard his faint plea, Naruto had taken it to mean that they should stop for the night. But Obito only shook his head.

He collapsed to the ground and his eyes stared forward at nothing in particular.  “I want it to be over. I want to be with them …”

And Naruto’s heart instantly clenched because she did too. She loved life and she loved living. But it was so, so hard without her precious people. Obito had been familiar with this feeling even before Kaguya, but back then his mind had been twisted and he had hope in the Tsuki no me plan. There was always a light at the end of the tunnel for him despite how hard it was to see it through the darkness.

The specks of light were barely visible, but they were still there. So Obito continued to fight, to destroy, to maim, to kill. Because all of this violence and bloodshed, all of this darkness was worth reaching the light for.

But after Kaguya, there was nothing to hope for. Nothing to believe in. All of that vileness that he had dealt with and inflicted upon others was meaningless in the end. The force of this reality weighed down upon him, even more so after Kakashi’s death.

“And I have no right to feel this way,” he’d told her. “None of this would have happened if not for my actions. In the end … In the end I’ve not only destroyed everything else around me, but myself as well.”

The problem was, Obito wasn’t wrong. Not completely. And that’s what made it so sad, so heartbreaking. Naruto had fallen beside him after that and pulled him into her arms, muffling the soft cries for the world, for himself, and for Kakashi, who had been the last remaining piece of his days before darkness.

It had been so hard for him to wake up alongside Naruto and continue to survive, to hide from the imminent death; to continue the fight despite how futile it was …

But now, his grin mirrored hers, animated and ruthless as he matched her in combat. This was something they needed, Naruto was sure of it. They had to let go. To be relax and be themselves. To bask in this newfound freedom that they could never obtain in a world ruled by Kaguya.

And for a moment. Just for a moment. Naruto felt like it was also his way of an apology.

Heh. I’ve already forgiven you, idiot. For everything.

Eventually, night fell upon them and the two had to concede. Despite wanting to just go crazy with her chakra, she did try to control it and hopefully recover some of her control from when she was older. Obito collapsed onto his back in the grass beside her, knocking her forehead with his fist as he did so.

“Oi,” she grumbled.

He responded with soft, breathy laughter. “You’ve gotten a lot better.”

“You think so?”

“Definitely. I think you’re ready to take on Orochimaru even.”

Naruto glanced to her side and gave him a glare. “Don’t tease me, dattebayo.”

Obito grinned her way before gazing up at the sky. The gap between the trees, formed by the training ground, gave way to a beautiful sight. The stars in the night sky winked and glittered as the sound of clicking cicadas lured them into a sense of peace and serenity.

“You are improving, Naruto,” Obito suddenly said, breaking through the melody of the night.

Naruto turned to face him again only to find him still staring up at the stars. His usually dark eyes reflected the brightly lit sky and a feeling a warmth flooded her insides.

“You may not be at your best right now, but you’re getting there,” he continued. “Believe in yourself.”

“Ma, how cliché, Obito-kun,” she laughed. “I already believe in myself, so you don’t have to worry.”

His breathing seemed to even then, and he finally turned to face her. She met his gaze, eyes bright and cheeks tinted red.

“But thanks anyway,” she hummed.

His eyes widened very slightly, but he didn’t move beyond that. Seeing as he had nothing else to say, Naruto turned her attention back to the stars. Suddenly, though, a thought came to her.

“Hey, by the way …” she began slyly. “You and Kurama kinda had the same advice. How does it feel to agree with a centuries old fox?”

She watched as Obito’s expression dropped exponentially out of the corner of her eye, and within her, Kurama’s annoyance stirred.

“I hate you.”

“I hate you.”

The synchronicity of her two partners had Naruto unleashing a wave of unfiltered laughter that echoed into the night.

The elated feeling in her chest did not last long. Despite the connection the two of them shared last night, by the next day’s midafternoon, everything had blown up in their faces.

Naruto hadn’t been prepared for it. In fact, she had woken up with a grin on her face and a warm hand in her hair. Obito’s eyes had blinked open just a few minutes after her. He flexed his hand experimentally before continuing to knead through her blond locks with a small smile. It made Naruto feel as though they were in their own little bubble, safe from anyone or anything that threatened to harm them.

But eventually, Obito had to get up and head to training. Naruto pouted as he left and tried to shake off the empty feeling that came with watching him leave.

Instead, she focused on carrying out her morning routine, all the while Kurama grumbled quietly to himself from within their mindscape. A few hours later, as Naruto was working on molding her chakra from her position on the living room floor, Kurama muttered something particularly rude, causing Naruto to growl.

“Seriously, Kurama, what’s your deal?!”

The fox merely huffed. “Nothing.”

“Doesn’t seem like nothing, dattebayo! You’ve been saying some shitty stuff under your breath for a while now,” she told him, scrunching her nose up in distaste.

“Keh, I’ve only said things that were true.”

Naruto squawked. “I don’t have a smelly butt! I shower regularly, asshole!”

Kurama grunted but didn’t respond. Why, oh why did Naruto always have to deal with the difficult ones? All the men around her were so annoying that it made her really wish for some one-on-one time with Sakura.

But Sakura isn’t even alive right now … Naruto tried her best not to think about it. Maybe if Obito wasn’t such a hardass about keeping me away from people I’d be able to get a girl friend.

She then leaned back onto her hands and sighed.

Maybe I should try to get to know Rin better. She seemed real nice. Kind of like Hinata, but more sassy like Sakura and Ino. Plus she was an iryo-nin. If Naruto asked nicely enough she might be willing to share some techniques.

The idea had Naruto perking up excitedly. She always loved learning new jutsu and medical ninjutsu was super useful. Kakashi-sensei once said it took a lot of chakra control to be able to pull off the feats that Sakura and Tsunade-baachan did, and that Naruto would have a harder time learning iryo-nin techniques because of that.

“Ha! Just wait! I’ll show you, sensei!” Naruto cackled, only for Kurama to roll his eyes.

“Stop talking to yourself like an idiot.”

She instantly deflated. “Ugh, seriously! What crawled up your butt and died, Kurama? You haven’t been this growly in a while, dattebayo.”

It took a moment for the fox to respond as he looked on in contemplation. After a couple of minutes, Naruto began to lose hope that she’d get an answer. But of course that was when the chakra beast decided to open his mouth.

“That Uchiha brat of yours …” he uttered quietly. “Do you notice how you act around him?”

Naruto blinked. “Um, not really. Why? Am I strange? I try to make him feel comfortable because he’s so messed up, ya’know?”

“That’s not what I-” he sighed. “Nevermind.”

“What?! Noooo! Tell me what’s up, Kurama!” she whined like a toddler, slapping her hands on the floor in front of her to emphasize her curiosity.

The fox, however, refused to say anymore, deciding to keep quiet to the consternation of his jinchuuriki.

“Stingy,” she muttered.

It was then that reality warped in front of her. The couch seemed to twist and shred before her, only for Obito to swirl into existence with a glare. Naruto blinked in shock at his appearance, not expecting to be met with such a hostile expression.

Okay, there’s no way I’m responsible for that.

“Don’t bet on it.”

“But I haven’t done anything!” Except try and spy on Nara Shikaku … but Obito couldn’t know about that, right?

Sitting their gawking wasn’t going to help her get to the bottom of this, so she tried calling out to her Uchiha partner. “Obi-”

“Dammit!” he suddenly screamed, yanking off his goggles furiously and throwing them. Fortunately, they landed on the couch, bouncing up in the air before landing in Naruto’s frantic grasp. Even more concerned now, she stood up and placed them gently on the end table.

“Obito, what happened? What’s wrong?”

“Everything,” he seethed, not even glancing at her as he stomped away.

Naruto, however, wouldn’t let him get away that easily. “Everything? Define ‘everything’. Should I be worried?”

Obito scowled deeper as the blonde girl rushed in front of him, blocking him from the bedroom. “They all know. Kakashi told them!”

“Wait, wait, I have so many questions. Kaka-sensei told who, what now?”

“The team. They know I have the sharingan.”

Naruto raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so I get that we wanted to keep that a secret for a while, but didn’t you awaken it around this time anyway? What’s the harm?”

“THEY JUST CAN’T KNOW!” Obito roared, but immediately stepped back, his teeth clenched and his gaze lingering on the floor.

Naruto rested her fists on each side of her hips and glared. “Hey, don’t get testy with me! Just explain yourself properly, dattebayo! Why can’t they know you have the sharingan?”

“Because I can’t have this getting out, Naruto,” he growled, his eyes rising to meet hers. “I don’t need the Uchiha breathing down my neck. As soon as they notice I’ve awakened my eyes, they’ll want me back. No way would they let one of their own walk around with this power unchecked.”

“But what makes you sure Kakashi-sensei and Dad would tell on you? Hell, do you really think Rin would go running to your family that abandoned you and tell them, ‘hey! My childhood friend just awakened his sharingan, please take him back now!’? Really, Obito?”

“It’s not just that. Who knows who could be listening or watching,” he explained. “Bakakashi announced it out in the wide-open during training. I told you I don’t need people in the shadows knowing anything more than they have to about us. We can’t stand out. Not yet, anyway.”

“How did he find out in the first place?” Naruto asked, curious.

A deep sigh escaped the Uchiha as he dragged a hand through his spiky hair. “He saw us sparring yesterday. No doubt he also saw you use shadow clones. Dammit! And then he had the nerve to make a huge spectacle about it during training. Complaining that I was somehow looking down on him by keeping my true abilities a secret, and that I only ever confide in you about everything-”

Okay, but he’s not entirely wrong … Naruto grimaced. “Look Obito, I think I kinda understand him. Wouldn’t you be offended if Kakashi was keeping a supersecret awesome jutsu from you and was letting you win every time you fought against each other?”

“But this is different!” Obito cried out helplessly. “I’m not looking down on that bastard. I could never- I … I respect Kakashi more than that asshole needs to know, alright? But I refuse to let him accuse me of shit he doesn’t understand and drag you into it!”

That’s kinda sweet, she thought fleetingly, before focusing back on the situation. “Maybe …” she gulped, knowing he wouldn’t react well to her suggestion. “… Maybe you should explain the truth to him.”

Obito’s breath hitched. “You want me to tell him the truth …”

“I mean, didn’t we just talk about involving someone else in our whole plot to save the world? Kakashi-sensei is super reliable and stuff.”

“He’s not the Kakashi you knew right now,” he reminded her, warningly.

“Well, yeah, I get he’s a little young and he’s got more of a stick up his butt than he does in the future … But he’s still fiercely loyal and I’d trust him with my life.”

Obito quickly shook his head. “No, Naruto. You don’t get it. You don’t know him like I do.” She squawked. “He’s not just some prickly asshole. He’d turn us over to anbu in an instant.”

“What?! Kakashi-sensei wouldn’t-”

“He would,” Obito firmly stated. “You saw him in my memories, I’m sure. But you probably didn’t get the full picture. He’s all about rules. What we’re doing now goes against everything he stands for.”

Naruto frowned, wanting to protest but finding she couldn’t. Obito was right that she didn’t really know her sensei in his younger years and it was true that Kakashi-sensei’s tendency to act by the book was what tripped his team up a bit in their Kannabi Bridge mission. But still … something within her cried out in defense of her sensei, the man who she deeply respected with all her heart.

“Fine. But, Rin knowing the truth can’t be bad, right? You’ve known each other since you were kids! She’d never betray your trust like that!”

Obito shook his head again, fervently, as he clenched his fists tighter and looked away. “She can’t know.”

“Ugh! Then what about my dad?!” she fumed. “He’s not like Kakashi-sensei! He trusts and believes in you! And plus he’s going to be the Fourth Hokage soon! That’d be perfect for-”

“He can’t know either!!!” Obito yelled, his eyes squeezing shut as he tried to control his breathing.

“But why?!” Naruto wanted to scream back at him. Why was Obito so adamant against letting his team know?! They were the most trustworthy people Naruto could think of in this time period. And sure, maybe she was biased, maybe she was a little naïve as well, but Naruto believed in the old Team Seven. Why couldn’t Obito do the same?

They were the people closest to him, the ones most willing to put their faith in him and stand by his side. Them knowing the future wouldn’t be a bad thing. It couldn’t be. Why would it-

Naruto’s eyes widened as a realization suddenly came to her. She turned her alarmed expression onto him, trying to hold in her temper but failing terribly. “Obito … I swear to kami, are you refusing to tell them because you’re scared of what they’d do if they learned about what you’ve done?”

The Uchiha instantly hissed, a look of horror flitting across his face before he once again squeezed his eyes shut, as though that would save him from the hard, cold truth (as though it would save him from her anger).

“So you’re telling me,” she began lowly, “that you’ve denied telling your team and slowed down our progress because you were scared of their reaction to you being a psychotic murdering asshole?!”

Shit. Okay, she didn’t mean to say it like that, but she couldn’t help it. This whole time, every single time Obito told her no when she offered to tell somebody, he’d made it sound as though she were being naïve, as though it was a dumb idea to get their friends and family involved. But this whole time he was just scared of rejection. He was scared of their hatred and their scornful gazes.

And Naruto got it, she really did.

But this whole time she really thought-

“I thought I was the one being ridiculous,” she bit out. “I thought maybe my ideas about how to do this were trash and I was too naïve about everything. I thought I was an idiot for wanting my father to know about me because, really, I was just being selfish. But it was you who was being selfish this whole time! Why should I have to give up on getting to know my family because you’re scared of getting rejected?!”

Obito bit his lip, still refusing to look at her.

“And really, how could you have known my dad longer than me and still not see that he’d never treat you like you’re a monster?! He really cares about you, dattebayo! He’d never-”

“But what if he does?!” Obito snapped, eyes full of fear. “You can’t say that for sure, Naruto!”

“Idiot, he already forgave you when he met you again as an edo tensei!” she shot back.

“That was a different situation, Naruto,” he rumbled. “And whether he forgave me or not is debatable.”

“ARGH! You’re so difficult!” she screeched. “Look, he won’t-”

“He will! I can’t … I’m not ready to face them. I can’t face them with what I’ve done. I’ve destroyed everything for a false dream. I kickstarted the end of the world, slaughtered hundreds, I ruined your life, Naruto. Who could ever forgive something like that?” he finished with a shaky whisper, as though he were pleading for her to agree with him, to despise him.

But Naruto refused to.

“I CAN!!!” she proclaimed, tears in her eyes. “I forgave you ages ago! I’ve told you over and over again but you just don’t listen!”

“You can’t-”

“I told you, I can!” Naruto growled, jumping forward and snagging his orange collar. “Why won’t you believe me for once, dammit?!”

Obito allowed her to jostle him in fury, his own eyes misting over as he stared down at her in guilt.

“And even, by some miraculous chance, dad or Kakashi-sensei don’t forgive you for your actions right away, then so what? You’d still have me to help you convince them! We’re partners, dattebayo! We’re supposed to have each other’s backs! We’re supposed to confide in each other and reminisce with each other and laugh and cry and-” she violently sniffed, holding back her sobs.

Goddammit, even to her own ears she sounded like a child. But for so long it’d been just the two of them against the world. Why couldn’t he trust in her for once? Why couldn’t he tell her the truth or believe in her or lean on her for support? Was she really that unreliable?

If only he had just told her sooner how he felt, she’d be more than happy to listen, to eventually assuage his fears. But like always, he’d clamped up, and even made her feel like a complete idiot in the process.

Angrily she tightened her hold on his collar before shoving him violently away. With one last snarl, she spun around and stomped into the bedroom, slamming the door with a vengeance before jumping onto their shared bed and screaming into a pillow.

Damn that bastard Uchiha! Damn him and his stupid guilt complex!

She hiccupped into the musty pillow sheet, finally allowing the tears to fall by the bucketload. Naruto was no stranger to crying. She was well acquainted with tears full of grief and sadness, even tears of happiness. But this was pure frustration, anger, and misery wrapped into a single raging ball of uncontrollable emotions.

She just wanted Obito to be happy for once. She just wanted to be happy for once. They had both loved, they had both lost, and sure neither of them were perfect, but Naruto wanted a bright future, one that included her Uchiha companion smiling and happy. But he kept making everything difficult. He kept hurting her without meaning to.

Irritated, she inhaled sharply, only to instantly regret it upon realizing whose pillow she was crying into. With a growl she threw Obito’s pillow at the door.

Ugh! She needed to get out of here.

So, she did just that, making the correct hand signs to shunshin out of the apartment and onto the streets of Konoha, hoping to get as far away as she could from Obito and their apartment.

Chapter Text

Making the correct hand signs, Naruto body flickered onto the streets of Konoha. Obito could wallow in his guilt for all she cared (she cared a lot), but Naruto wasn’t going to let his problems stop her from taking in the village, even if it wasn’t the one she remembered.

I just need to cool my head, dattebayo, she thought to herself as she traversed the village roads.

“Kit,” Kurama’s voice eventually spoke up, uncertainty oozing from his tone.

“What?” she coldly laughed. “No jokes about how it’s my fault that I care so much about a damn Uchiha? No more jabs about how I’m an idiot who was too stupid, too unreliable, too-”

“Stop.” Within the mindscape, Kurama bent low, his snout stopping just a few feet away from her. “You can’t help who you care for. And you’re not a complete idiot. You’re reliable when it counts. That Uchiha of yours just needs to get some sense knocked into him is all.”

Naruto released a defeated sigh. “I … I know … I’m just so angry at him.”

Kurama grunted softly. “He’s known nothing but guilt since the moment you and that sensei of yours set him straight. I understand what it’s like to be consumed by negative emotions. He’ll get over himself … eventually. But for now, realize that you have a right to be upset.”

“Are you … Are you trying to make me feel better?”

“No. I’m only telling you truthful facts.”

“But … you’d never willingly make excuses for Obito. And you definitely never compliment me-”

“Don’t read too into it, brat,” Kurama growled warningly before kicking her out of the mindscape with a flick of his tail.

Asshole! Naruto grumbled, sharply contrasting with the timid grin on her face that followed. Don’t think I didn’t notice you complimenting me!

Kurama refused to respond, causing the girl to internally snicker. Feeling slightly elated, she glanced up at the sun burning in the middle of the sky and wiped a bit at her moist eyelids.

“Hey! You!”

Immediately, she spun around and caught sight of the mustached man from yesterday, standing in front of his dango stall. Naruto tried not to remember the extreme reaction she’d had to him shouting at her, instead trying her best to stay calm and collected as he motioned for her to come closer.

She pointed at herself in question, receiving a succinct nod from the man and a more vehement beckoning with his hand. Awkwardly, she trudged forward. “H-Heh, hi?” she attempted, only to cringe at herself.

The man seemed amused at her failed attempt at normalcy. “You’re that kid who ran away last time, right?”

Naruto reluctantly nodded.

“Thought so. No way I’d forget blonde hair like that,” he muttered. “Why don’t you take a seat, little lady?”

It sounded like an order despite the man phrasing it like a question, so she promptly took a seat in front of the counter. “U-Um, did you need me for something?”

The man made his way behind the stall and began working on something, possibly an order (his hands were obscured behind the counter). With a snort, he responded, “I don’t really need anything. Not anything you could give me anyway. But I did want to apologize.”

At the profession, Naruto blinked up at him rapidly. “Apologize?” she repeated, tilting her head to the side.

The man huffed, his gaze remaining on whatever task he was carrying out. “I think I scared ya the other day,” he admitted. “Didn’t mean to freak you out like that, kid.”

“N-No I wasn’t-” she hesitated. “It wasn’t all your fault, mister. I was just reminded of something …”

He finally looked up from his work to inspect her. Nothing in his gaze gave away any malicious intent, but Naruto still felt a little uncomfortable regardless. With another huff, he glanced back down. “You’re a shinobi ain’t ya, kid? I’ seen your type before. I bet you’ve seen some things yourself fighting in this senseless war of yours. I understand there are somethings that’ll haunt ya forever.”

He wasn’t entirely correct with his assumption, but Naruto allowed it. She really had seen some things after all.  In response, Naruto nodded at him solemnly.

“Well,” he sighed. “I didn’t mean to arouse any unpleasant memories with my shoutin’ earlier. You just caught me on a bad day and I wasn’t takin’ any shit from people. Didn’t realize I was fuckin’ you over, kid.”

“It’s fine!” Naruto exclaimed. “Don’t worry, mister. I’m better now.”

He frowned. “That stuff don’t go away so easily, kid.” When Naruto didn’t try to deny him, he let the topic die, choosing instead to focus primarily on whatever it was he was doing back there. Naruto still had no idea what he wanted her for. Sure, he apologized, but … did that mean she could leave now? Did he need her to say that she forgave him or something?

Maybe for once someone would believe me when I say it, she mused bitterly.

Suddenly, however, he reached over the counter and slapped down a small plate in front of her. Sitting on top of it, were three sticks of dango. Immediately, Naruto’s eyes bulged at the gesture.

“Ah! No thank you, sir! I don’t have money with me and-”

“It’s on the house, kid,” he told her, resolutely. “My apology to you.”

Naruto stared openly at the suddenly very kind gesture, before turning her bug-eyed attention towards the dango in front of her. “… Thank you,” she finally said, glancing up with a slight bow of her head.

“Think nothing of it,” he muttered before glancing up at something to his left and going back to work on another order. Naruto didn’t necessarily understand why, since no one else was around, but she was quickly proven wrong when someone of pretty short stature leapt up onto the seat two spaces down from her.

This person, a kid who appeared a few years younger than Naruto, had short purple hair, light brown eyes, and slightly chubby cheeks that still held onto her baby fat. Something about the kid seemed familiar, but Naruto couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

The feeling of familiarity only escalated when the girl exclaimed loudly, “Get me my usual, pops!”

“Rude brat,” the man behind the counter muttered, before placing the food he had been working on in front of her.

“Hey! It’s not like I ain’t a paying customer,” she said with a cheeky grin. “Plus, ain’t I the most frequent? If I didn’t show up all the time, you’d be out of business!”

Naruto cringed a bit at the obnoxious laughter that followed her statement. It was really hard to admit this, but … she kind of reminded her of her younger self … well, her past (future?) younger self. Kami this is all so confusing.

Suddenly those ashy eyes were on her. “What are you looking at?” she inquired, not entirely hostile.

The dango stall owner scolded her anyway. “This here’s another paying customer, so back off or she won’t return. I can’t survive off of your ten-year old salary forever.”

It was a lie. She wasn’t paying at all. But the look he sent her afterwards revealed he wanted to keep that just between them.

“… If you say so.” The girl shrugged, before digging into her food.

It was then that Naruto remembered her own dango in front of her and began eating as well. Stars lit up behind her closed eyelids, as she hummed happily. “Mister! This is super good, dattebayo!”

The girl glanced up at Naruto, while the stall owner smirked proudly. “It better be. I’ve been doing this for over twenty-six years.”

“Wow!” Naruto exclaimed before biting into more of her food. “This is just what I needed, mister!”

“Jiroichi Tenma is the name, kid,” he corrected.

She swallowed her next bite before returning a grin. “Naruto! Believe it!”

“Naruto, huh …” the girl beside her repeated in contemplation. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around before. You’re a ninja right?”

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. “And who’s asking?”

“Mitarashi Anko,” she answered smugly. “Best kunoichi of my generation and student of the legendary snake sannin!”

Naruto’s breath left her for a moment and she stared down at the miniature version of her second Chunin Exams proctor.

Oh my kami, she’s kind of adorable. In a, “I can and will murder you in your sleep” kind of way.

“So … not cute at all.”

Fair, she thought, before trying a smile. “Nice to meet you Mitarashi-san.”

Immediately the girl looked at her weird. “Aren’t you older than me? Why are you so formal?”

Naruto chuckled awkwardly at that. “I’m usually not. Don’t worry, I can call you Anko-chan from now on.”

“Heh. Only if I get to call you Naruto-chan.”

“Eh, knock yourself out. I’m still gonna be taller than you,” she egged on.

Anko sneered. “Just you wait. When I hit my growth spurt I’m gonna tower over all of ya!”

Naruto kept it to herself that Anko continued to stay of short stature even way into her twenties. “If you say so.”

“I know so.” Anko cackled. “I bet you won’t grow past five feet.”

The blonde jinchuuriki pouted a bit at how close to home the other girl was. Naruto definitely passed five feet when she got older. But she stayed stagnant at five foot four even after those around her kept growing. She could still remember the smug looks Ino and Sakura would give her when teasing her about her height.

Despite not knowing the whole reason for Naruto’s dejected look, Anko found it hilarious anyway and laughed.

It was amazing, suddenly how much better Naruto felt. Here she was talking to strangers (sort of) about nothing in particular and enjoying their company to the fullest. She liked this. She really, really liked this.

Somehow, she and Anko got into a conversation about the best types of ninja tools to carry around during battle, which Naruto had to concede she knew very little about. But what she did know, Naruto relayed back to her short companion, sometimes reciting Tenten word from word. Usually when she was reminded of long dead friends from her past/future, a melancholic cloud fell over Naruto, consuming her every thought and emotion.

But Anko’s fast paced conversation didn’t allow for that. The young girl hopped from subject to subject, seemingly happy to just have someone her age to talk to. And, honestly, Naruto couldn’t agree more.

“Hey, we should do this again sometime, Naruto-chan,” said girl suggested with a grin.

“Definitely!” Naruto agreed.

Jiroichi huffed, calling their attention back to him. “Come back any time girls. Though I would appreciate if you didn’t stay too long after you’ve already finished eating. You’re interrupting my business.”

“Eh?! But aren’t we awesome company?” Anko laughed. “Two cool kunoichi gracing your presence and buying your dango should be an honor!”

Jiroichi rolled his eyes. “Get out of here kid!”

“You didn’t deny it!” she exclaimed but dashed off as soon as Jiroichi picked up a plate as though to throw it at her. “See ya later, Naruto!!!!”

Naruto could hear her delighted laughter even after she was far out of sight. Turning back to the stall owner, Naruto smiled. “Thanks for the food, Jiroichi-san.”

The older man nodded pleasantly. “Don’t sweat it. My apology, remember? Just don’t forget to bring money next time, got it?”

“Hehe, I hear you loud and clear, dattebayo!”

By the time Naruto made it back home, the sun had already disappeared and in its absence brought the unusually sharp light of the moon. Unlike her earlier departure, Naruto entered through the front door, trying to tiptoe her way around. A dark lump on top of the furniture nearly had her yelping in fright but she was able to compose herself just in time.

She slammed a hand over her mouth furiously as she took in Obito’s silhouette curled up on the couch. He wasn’t facing her, that much she could tell by barely spotting the white bottom half of the Uchiha crest on the back of his shirt. He hadn’t even changed into his pajamas …

Naruto shook her head vigorously. Bad Naruto! No feeling bad for the angsty Uchiha asshole! Is what she tried to tell herself, but in the end she had to acknowledge the tug on her heart when she looked at him. His breath was even, shoulders slowly moving in time with each inhale and exhale. She appreciated that he was giving her space by sleeping in the living room. She wasn’t quite ready to face him yet …

After a while, she continued her trek towards the bedroom and proceeded to get ready for the night. In their bed. All alone. With no one to lay beside.

Naruto huffed in dissatisfaction.

She really hated that she already missed his idiotic ass. But it was better this way. Hopefully, they could face each other tomorrow. Maybe have a normal conversation for once while they’re at it? And then afterwards she could tell him all about meeting Jiroichi and Anko.

Thinking this, she hopped into bed with a tentative smile on her face.

Yeah … they’d talk tomorrow.

But when tomorrow actually came, Naruto had the strong urge to jump out the window again.

Yeah, no, I don’t think I’m ready to talk to him yet.

Kurama groaned at her behavior.

“I really need to use the bathrooooom. Ugh, but what if he sees me?” Naruto continued to moan internally, not caring much about whether her fox friend was listening or not. “If only I had kamui! Dammit, that technique is wasted on Obito! If I had it, I’d use it for things that really mattered!”

“Like popping into the bathroom of the apartment you live in just because of the off chance that your roommate might see you?”

“YES!”

“You’re hopeless. If he sees you just don’t look at him.”

“It’s not that simple, Kurama!” Naruto bit her lip. “I’ll … I’ll just have to wait him out. Yeah! Yeah, I can do that.”

Usually, if the indoors restroom wasn’t available and Naruto really needed to use it, she’d have done it outside in a bush. But the apartment they lived in wasn’t exactly close to any large bouts of greenery, with the closest tree being a few yards away and surrounded by an attractive flowerbed for spectators to look at. There was no way Naruto was going to go out there and expose herself like a dog!

Wait.

Maybe if I …

“If you henge into a dog just so you can go pee outside I’m disowning you as my jinchuuriki.”

“W-What?! I wasn’t-! You can’t do that!”

“I can and I will.”

“I wasn’t gonna, Kurama! I swear!”

The fox snorted in disbelief but didn’t argue any further. With a sigh, Naruto sat on the bed and felt for Obito’s chakra in the living room, only to sense nothing at all. A drop of sweat slipped down her face. “Uh, okay, Kurama … don’t be mad but-”

“He’s not even home is he?”

Naruto spent most of her day out, not knowing which way to turn. She thought about going after Shikaku again, but that would mean doing more espionage behind Obito’s back while they were still at odds with one another, and, well, it just didn’t seem right.

I really should tell him about that, she thought idly. It was probably for the best that she didn’t hide any secrets from him, just as she wished he wouldn’t hide any from her. As these ideas passed through her head, she became worried about her own hypocrisy.

I mean, he kept his true feelings a secret and then here I am hiding my own secrets from him. That’s not technically fair …

She hoped that Kurama would give his two cents on the situation, but for once the demon fox stayed silent, more interested in resting than hearing Naruto’s constant internal rambling.

If she were back in the future, she’d know exactly who to go to with this kind of stuff, and it definitely wasn’t Sai. Sakura would always have a mature take on Naruto’s problems, spelling out each little detail to help the jinchuuriki come to a conclusion. Shikamaru was also pretty good at that stuff, since he tended to view everything like a puzzle that needed to be solved. In fact, many of her friends were quite insightful when it came to Naruto’s problems. But the one person she relied on the most, the one person she knew she could always trust and speak openly with, was Iruka-sensei.

She missed Iruka-sensei so much. He had always been this older brother figure who seemed to always have the answers. Mature and dependable, Umino Iruka was someone that Naruto was beyond grateful to have in her life. She loved him. Not in the way she had loved Sakura, with feelings of admiration and shyness turning into deep care and friendship; Not in the way she had loved Sasuke, with a strong burning desire to have him at her side; Not even in the way she had loved Kakashi-sensei, with his cool exterior making her blush in awe and excitement.

No, Iruka-sensei would always be something else entirely and Naruto simply could not put it into words. The easy way to explain it was that he was family, but even that didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. All Naruto knew was that there would never again be anyone in her life quite like Iruka.

And he had died. Like so many others that Naruto loved. Like Team Seven, like baa-chan, like jii-chan, like-

No. She refused to think about it.

Why can’t I move past this? She cried. Why can’t I stop thinking about them? It hurts …

The people she once knew and loved were no longer around, and if they were, they weren’t quite how Naruto remembered them. Teuchi-ojisan was younger and Ayame but a child. She hadn’t even met jii-chan or the other sensei she used to know. Anko was somewhat similar to her older counterpart, but still had an unfamiliar naivety to her. While Kakashi-sensei was-

Kakashi-sensei was right in front of her.

“Ah! Kakashi-se-” Naruto’s eyes widened. “Uh, I mean, Kakashi!”

There, not even a few feet away, stood the young Hatake himself, his head turning in the opposite direction from Naruto after hearing her yell.

“Hey! I’m talking to you Kaka-se, I mean, Kakashi!”

Once again, he ignored her and continued on walking. With a huff she went to follow him. Obito hadn’t been lying when he mentioned how much of a dick her old sensei was as a child. He was kind of terrible as an adult too, but in a different way. At this age, he kind of reminded her of Sasuke and the thought made her nostalgic. Of course, that didn’t mean she actually liked being ignored.

Catching up with him, she threw a pout his way. “Man, you’ve been a jerk your whole life, huh?”

“Did you want something?” he finally spoke, irritation dripping from his tone. Naruto chose to ignore this.

“… Not really, I guess,” she said after a moment of contemplation. Honestly, she just wanted someone to talk to. “What, uh, what’s been up with you?” She hadn’t had much of a chance to speak with him since he first met her in the apartment all those weeks ago. Being able to interact with him now was kind of exciting.

“If you don’t need anything then stop talking to me.”

Of course. If having a sharingan in his left eye didn’t make him an honorary Uchiha, then his attitude sure did.

Naruto had to remind herself though, that at this point in time, Kakashi didn’t have Obito’s eye. The proof was right in front of her as two sets of dark eyes glanced her way in irritation.

“Wha?! Well fine then! I do need something!” she continued the conversation, almost on autopilot as she took in his appearance. He still looked very much like his older self, but seeing the top of his face was kind of intriguing. When he had still been alive, Kakashi-sensei only revealed his left eye in battle and Naruto barely had time to get a good look at his face, too awed by the sharingan that sprung to life in Obito’s eye. But without it, Kakashi looked somewhat normal, pretty even. Was it weird to call the younger version of her sensei pretty?

“What?”

Naruto blinked, forgetting for a moment what they had been talking about. “Um …” Mentally running through their conversation again, Naruto finally responded with, “Well, I guess I wanted to talk to you. But you’re a real asshole, dattebayo!”

Not tactful, sure. But it was true. This Kakashi was super snippy and honestly, Naruto had no idea if it was better or worse than the porn-reading, aloof sensei he had become in the future. Both personalities were quite interesting, but Naruto couldn’t deny that she missed the ease she felt with the older Kakashi.

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Well, duh.” Naruto could definitely see that.

“If you understand then go away.”

“Why should I?!”

“Because I politely requested it.”

Pfft! ‘Politely’, my ass! “There’s nothing about you right now that’s polite, dattebayo!” she exclaimed with a huff.

“Look. Leave me the hell alone and go back to that dumbass Obito or whatever,” he snapped, all the while quickening his pace.

Hearing this, Naruto couldn’t help the stumble she made as her feet wobbled beneath her. The thought of talking to her Uchiha companion right now was ridiculous. After what they had said to each other? No way.

“Bastard!” she shouted, heatedly, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes. “I wouldn’t be out here in the first place dealing with your nasty ass if I could just go back to-”

Of course she couldn’t go back to Obito. Because- because-

Because of Kakashi, her mind supplied. “Whatever! If you hadn’t blown your lid yesterday, none of this would have happened!” Yes, that was right. If Kakashi hadn’t freaked out in front of the entire team, Obito wouldn’t have been exposed and he wouldn’t have come home so angry, and then the two of them wouldn’t have gotten into such a horrible fight.

But no, as much as she wanted to, Naruto couldn’t blame all of this on Kakashi. She just couldn’t.

Of course, however, Kakashi had to open his stupid mouth again. “This is all your fault. If you hadn’t shown up none of this would have happened in the first place.”

With an affronted gasp, Naruto screeched. “Excuse me?!”

“Everything goes back to you. Obito’s strange behavior. His sudden prowess in battle. His sharingan.”

Seriously, Kakashi-sensei?! She mentally growled. He wasn’t entirely wrong that Naruto was connected to how different Obito seemingly was. But she hadn’t actually done anything! Sure she’d, changed his opinion about the Tsukiyomi plan … but everything else were circumstances from the future that molded Obito into who he was now. “That has nothing to do with me, dattebayo! Maybe if you stopped spying like a creeper-”

“You were at the training grounds I specifically use when I’m doing individual training-”

“-then maybe you wouldn’t be dealing with whatever the hell you’re being all fussy about in the first place!”

The boy’s eyebrows twitched in a way that reminded Naruto of Sasuke whenever he would get incredibly pissed off about something while also trying to keep from shouting.  “You’re an insufferable idiot. I know what I’m talking about. You and Obito are hiding something and I-”

“Of course we’re hiding shit, dattebayo!” Naruto interrupted. The two of them were hiding a lot of things. But did that give Kakashi the right to antagonize them and butt his nose in their business??? Thanks to his little outburst, the fact that Obito could use his dojutsu was out in the open. And yeah, Naruto had no idea if Obito’s fears that his family would find out were unfounded, but the fact remained that Kakashi had done something he really shouldn’t have done.

“His family can’t know he has the sharingan,” she seethed at him, trying to keep the rest a secret for now. “But you just had to go spy on us and then blurt it out to one of the most powerful shinobi in the village and the rest of your team!”

Kakashi scoffed but didn’t argue further.

Naruto took that as a sign to continue. “And another thing! Obito doesn’t have to tell you shit! It’s not like you tell him everything about your skills or training, dattebayo! Kami! You’re both idiots!”

And I’m an idiot, too, for spying on Shikaku behind Obito’s back …

The offended look that passed over Kakashi’s face was almost laughable. “Don’t lump me in with that deadla-”

Oh hell no. Kakashi was not gonna insult her companion right now. This no-good son of a-

“You shut the hell up!” she demanded, disappointed in her sensei (or at least, his younger self).  “I can’t believe I admired you-”

“You’re the one who’s shouting like a maniac in the middle of the street.”

Ugh. Touché, asshole. “Fine then! You wanna take this somewhere else?!”

“Fine.”

“Fine!” she repeated, childishly. “Lead the way, asshole!”

And then, suddenly, Naruto found herself at another training ground, only this time she was fighting the child version of her sensei. Which … okay, she hadn’t expected for this to happen, but considering how quick to violence Naruto could be, this really shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to herself.

It was exhilarating, fighting Kakashi and actually being stronger than him. The last time she’d fought her sensei, she’d only been 15, still trying to find herself as a kunoichi and nowhere close to learning anything like sage mode. She’d never actually fought him when the two of them were close in strength, with Naruto having the upper hand.

That is, until now.

Young Kakashi was really, really good. No wonder he had been considered a prodigy. He was leagues beyond what Naruto had been at this age and it sent chills of excitement down her spine. He put up such a good fight. Nowhere near as good as Obito’s just a few nights ago, but decent enough that Naruto had to actually try. And she enjoyed it. A lot.

Here before her was a fun new foe to test her skills on. A foe who wasn’t hell-bent on destroying the world or killing her loved ones. No, this was just Hatake Kakashi, faithful shinobi of Konoha and future badass extraordinaire.

A smile planted firmly across her face for the remainder of their spar and a feeling of elation overtook her. One look at her opponent, and Naruto knew she wasn’t alone in this emotion either.

Kakashi’s shoulders were looser and his eyes still sharp but no longer narrowed with rage.

Good.

Eventually, however, some good things were fated to end and Naruto emerged from their sparring as the victor. It was exhilarating, knowing that she beat Kakashi. Especially considering all of her concerns about not being able to hold her own. Of course, this had been a taijutsu only battle. Naruto was impressed with herself, but also ecstatic to see what a spar would be like while utilizing ninjutsu. Now that would be fun.

Surprisingly, Kakashi took his loss pretty well. He had been shocked for a moment, but ultimately, he conceded to defeat.

Plopping down beside him afterwards, she leaned in slightly and spoke. “Ne, Kakashi.”

“What?” he muttered, barely glancing her way. He seemed tired.

“Sorry for calling you an asshole.”

Kakashi made a subtle noise in response, seemingly not caring about this.

“And a bastard,” she added.

“Hn,” he repeated.

“And an idiot.”

Kakashi rolled his eyes. “Got it.”

Naruto smirked. “And a no good son of a bitch.”

Suddenly, the silver-haired boy looked at her completely, eyebrows shooting up to his headband. “When the hell did you call me that?”

She giggled. “Oh, it was definitely in my head. But I’m sorry for thinking it!”

“You’re unbelievable,” he sighed in a way that seemed very reminiscent of his older self.

Nostalgia bells rang once more inside her head, as Naruto took him in. “Ne, Kakashi?”

“What is it now?”

Awkwardly, she turned away. It was at this moment that Naruto felt like she could talk to him normally. At the very least, give him some answers. This was Kakashi. Naruto knew she could trust in him.

Taking a deep breath, the jinchuuriki began. “I may have gotten into an argument with Obito yesterday. Like, a real bad argument,” she explained, somewhat embarrassed to reveal this to someone else. “We hadn’t had something like that since- well, anyway. I just needed some time away, ya’know?”

Eventually, I ran into you.

“So, you decided to bother me,” he said, as though reading her mind.

“Not at first. But I wanted to get to know you a bit,” she admitted. “And, well …”

At her hesitance, the boy narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“I just gotta know …” Because even though she trusted in Kakashi, she had to admit that Obito had a right to his concerns. This wasn’t the Kakashi she knew after all. Naruto was ready to accept it, that these people were different, and this wasn’t her Konoha, yet. (Someday soon though, it would be). “You’re not gonna tell the Uchiha about Obito’s sharingan … are you?”

When Kakashi didn’t say anything right away, Naruto gulped.

“If Fugaku-san and the other Uchiha find out that he awakened his sharingan, they’ll try to bring him back into the clan,” she rattled on, nervously. “They’ll want to monitor his training, bring him back into their ranks and all that. But! But Obito doesn’t want that! It’s like kicking a pet to the side and only bringing them back when it’s convenient for the owner, dattebayo!”

Having said all she could on the subject, Naruto sat there and waited for Kakashi’s response. He quietly contemplated her words, eyes staring at nothing in particular as his eyebrows pinched only slightly in concentration.

Eventually, he opened his mouth. “No. I don’t plan on saying anything to Fugaku-san,” he replied. “But that’s not to say Minato-sensei won’t.”

No, not her dad. Did she really have to worry about him, too?! “T-Then we’ve gotta stop him, dattebayo!!!”

Kakashi rolled his eyes. “Calm down. I never said that he was going to either.”

Naruto shook her head. “But still! We gotta at least try and convince him not to.”

“We?” The boy looked at her as though she had grown another head.

Naruto huffed, placing her hands on her hips. “Yes, we. I just beat you! So, you owe me something.”

Isn’t that how it goes? She mused, thinking back on her bet with Kurama.

“I never agreed to that,” he muttered.

“It’s either you help me convince Minato-san, or you take me to Ichiraku’s for dinner,” she told him, firmly. She then smugly proclaimed, “Man, I love Ichiraku’s! It’s so damn good! I could eat ten bowls in a row, dattebayo!”

The boy beside her sweatdropped. “Whatever,” Kakashi grumbled. “Fine. We’ll talk to him tomorrow. Training starts back up in the morning.”

“Alright!” she cheered. “It’s a promise!”

If Kakashi broke their promise, she’d definitely kick him in the crotch, and yet, Naruto still had a feeling that she could trust him. Sure, he wasn’t her Kakashi-sensei. But that part of him was still in there and Naruto chose to believe in that.

Happily, she stretched out her hand hoping he’d shake on their deal, but the boy ignored her. With no remorse, he stood up and began walking away leaving her gawking on the ground.

“Hey! Asshole!” she shouted, to no avail. The Hatake continued his trek out of the clearing, causing a wave of irritation to flood through her. “KAKASHI!!!!!”

(Despite his unlikeable personality though, Naruto couldn’t help but think he wasn’t so bad.)

All it would take was a step. Just one.

One more step and she’d be at the apartment door.

The lights were on, she could see them shine through the window. But she couldn’t hear him. All the sounds in the house were mute. A soundproof seal, one Naruto had created upon their arrival. She wasn’t the best at fuinjutsu, but she had tried her best after learning about her father and mother’s past.

A shadow passed by, cutting through the yellow glow that emitted from the gap between the door and the floor, and Naruto gulped. Obito had to know she was there, had to feel her chakra. She wasn’t even hiding her presence, just standing there as stiff as a board, hoping for something within to draw her body forward.

Naruto was not a coward. In fact, she was usually the first one jumping in … to other people’s problems that is. But recently she had been losing her confidence. It was hard to admit, but it was the truth. Years of feeling useless in the wake of a more powerful entity can sometimes do that to a person.

You can do this, she firmly stated for the millionth time in her head. You are Uzumaki Naruto, dammit! You’ve got this!

“You do, brat. You really do,” came Kurama’s raspy voice, as though awoken from a dream. “Now, could you please just get it over with?”

“Glad to see you’re still alive in there,” she responded sarcastically. “And I’m working myself up to it, okay?”

“Listen brat. He knows you’re here and he hasn’t left yet. That means he wants to see you AKA he’s open to discussion,” he told her with a roll of his eyes. “So you better get on with it and fix your issues or just go somewhere else and spare me the theatrics.”

“Okay, okay! I’m doing it, geez.”

Kurama was a rude jackass, but his words gave Naruto the confidence to take that next step. Her foot planted itself a few more inches and carried the rest of her with it. Now she was directly in front of the door.

Her hand stretched forward, reaching for the doorknob when suddenly it turned. A soft click filled the air, and the door was suddenly pulling open to reveal Obito. His gaze met hers immediately and Naruto’s stomach did flips.

This was it and she had no idea what to say to him. Naruto was still upset with him, but she was also tired of feeling so on edge and lonely. It was … empty without him there. And Kurama was right. He wouldn’t make himself available like this if he wasn’t feeling something similar, right?

Obito’s lips moved slightly, as if he were about to speak, but they quickly clamped back together and the boy moved to the side.

Naruto answered the silent question in his eyes by taking another step forward, this time into the apartment. That one step became two, three, and then four. She stood in the genkan and watched awkwardly as he closed the door behind her.

The click of the lock, and Obito was turning to look back at her. Like an idiot, she hadn’t moved any further, keeping them barely two feet away from each other as nervous jitters racked her body.

His eyes roamed her face, narrowing in on the way she anxiously bit her lip. In return, she watched his adam’s apple move below his chin in wonder.

Neither of them spoke.

It wasn’t until what felt like minutes later that Obito cleared his throat.

Struck from her trance, Naruto blinked rapidly.  Right. They had to talk. “So, uh. How was your day?”

Obito’s face went completely blank, and Naruto cringed. “It was good … How was your day?” he asked.

“It was … It was okay.” She frowned, suddenly feeling like an idiot. Naruto was never one to skate around the bush like this. She liked to take a more straightforward approach to these kinds of things. So, steeling herself, she hardened her gaze and spoke, “You know what? No. Actually my day sucked and I’m sorry, but it’s all your fault.”

When he didn’t respond, Naruto took that as a cue to continue.

“You hurt my feelings and pissed me off. I wish you had told me how you really felt about my dad and the others knowing our identities. I also wish you’d rely on me more. I thought we were friends, you know. And I get it, a bit, okay? I understand that you’re going through a lot, but I’m asking you …” she sighed. “… As the person who’s been by your side through thick and thin these last few years, please trust and believe in me.”

Naruto had Obito’s undivided attention throughout her speech, and she was grateful that he didn’t interrupt, but once she finished, the silence consumed her and sent pricks of discomfort down her body.

“W-Well?” she squeaked after a while. “Now it’s your turn, dattebayo! Anything you want to say. Just lay it on me.”

When she received no response, she pounded her chest determinedly.

“Seriously, I mean it. Just …” her shoulders slumped. “Just tell me what’s going through your head.”

Obito’s gaze faltered, and he glanced quickly to his right. There wasn’t anything of importance in that direction, just the large entryway to the kitchen. Swallowing down his nerves, the other boy opened his mouth and began quietly, “I … I spoke to someone. Today.”

His eyes crinkled, his brows lowered, and his lips pursed together. “Someone I haven’t spoken to in a very long time. Someone who died because of my actions as Madara.” Obito’s fists clenched as he said this, his nails biting into his skin. Naruto watched, patiently. “When he … when he’d died, I had no idea he was actually seeing the love of his life after years of just refusing to admit his feelings. I … had no idea he had a child on the way, either … before he was killed by the Akatsuki.”

Glancing back at Naruto, he admitted firmly, “My fault. If I hadn’t made Akatsuki into what it was, he would have been alive longer. And true, I don’t know how long it would’ve taken before he finally kicked the bucket. Hell, he could have died only a few days later on some other mission instead. But what I do know, is that I took that chance away from him. To live or die. For so long, I was willing to pick and choose who needed to perish, or who needed to live. It wouldn’t matter in the long run because the Tsukiyomi would fix everything.”

“But you showed me how wrong I was. You told me that I was Uchiha Obito, and I realized that I was only me. Who am I to enforce such a world onto others? Who am I to decide who lives and who dies? How foolish could one be to think that there was any simple solution to world peace that was within reach. The reality of our world is that death and sacrifice will always exist, but it is up to us to choose to be better.”

“And part of me honestly thinks that sentiment is stupid. Despite how much you tried to drill it into my head, I still believe that most shinobi will continue to choose violence and despair, rather than change. But I also saw, that despite this, people like you existed.” His mouth tilted upward ever so slightly as he said this. “People like you can bring about change in even some of the most depraved humans. That’s why you’re so important. That’s why I’m so grateful to you.”

“You’ve given me hope that there can be happiness in this world. And everyday since we’ve come here, I see it. I see people struggle and fight and love. Resilient people like you are what make this world bearable. And then I look at myself and all I can see is a monster. Someone who took away these brilliant, shining people with all the killing I’ve done in the name of Madara’s ‘peace’.”

His eyes crinkled a bit as he looked at her, as though he were in pain.

“And then I look at you, and I see the prime example of how I tried to take away the brightest light I’ve ever known. On one hand, you represent my greatest failure, but on the other, you’re this shining beacon of warmth. And I hate myself for wanting to be comforted by you. You of all people! The person I probably wronged the most!” Obito’s eyes slid shut as he said this, no longer able to look her in the eye. Despite this, Naruto refused to look away. She couldn’t.

She hadn’t seen such raw emotion from another person in so long. The anger and hate he felt towards himself, the sadness and regret, all of it, radiated from his body and had taken ahold of her. Don’t look away, take it all in, see what he never wanted you to see.

“It’s just … it’s just so pathetic and cowardly of me. Thinking I can stand beside you or Kakashi or Rin despite everything I’ve done. I deserve punishment for my arrogance, yet at the same time I’m scared of it.”

“I-I don’t understand myself. I’m scared of rejection, so I hide, I cling to you and refuse to face my teammates. But at the same time, I also want you to hate me. Maybe … maybe I think that if you hate me too, then I’ll truly be alone as I deserve to be. And yet, I also don’t want that. I-I just don’t get it! I’m tired of feeling confused. I’m tired of feeling cold while simultaneously feeling as though I’ll combust at any moment.”

“The worst part of it is, I hurt you again because I can’t get my bullshit together. And I’m so, so sorry for that, Naruto. You deserve better, and I’m sorry for keeping you away from people who would cherish you the way you should have been the first time around.”

Finally, Obito’s eyelids slid open just barely, but he still refused to look back at her, training his gaze on the floor of the genkan.

“Like I said, I talked to an old comrade of mine, and I’ve come to realize how stupid I’ve been.” He scoffed. “I need to stop getting stuck on my problems and worry about giving you the happiness you deserve. Because isn’t this what it’s all about? Isn’t that why we time traveled in the first place? To give people a chance at happiness without me or Madara or fucking Zetsu screwing it up.”

He then lifted his head determinedly and darkness met light. Naruto’s heart, beat even faster.

“And if something happens because we weren’t careful enough in trying to keep our secret, then like you said, it’ll be alright. Maybe your way of thinking isn’t all that naïve, maybe you see the world in the correct way, unlike me, who has only ever allowed myself to see the bad.”

“Even if it turns out you were wrong and they turn against us, even if you end up hating me with a burning passion, I will be there to help you no matter what. Instead of hiding from the world, I should be making amends to you.”

No, a voice whispered inside her head. No, don’t be stupid, idiot.

 “Forget constantly worrying about my stupid, silly problems. All that should matter right now, is you,” he finished, ridiculously confident despite the dumbassery coming out of his mouth.

“You’re wrong, Obito!” Naruto hissed at him, unbelievably upset by his words. “I shouldn’t be the only thing that matters to you. Look, you have four people right now who care and treasure you. I appreciate that you want me to be happy, I really do. But I want the same for you!” she cried out, desperately. “I want you to be happy, too. And maybe it’s selfish of me to say this, but the way I see it, coming back to the past is a do-over you can’t just pass up, Obito! This is your chance to do better. To do right by not only me, but everyone else you’ve wronged, too. Being there for your friends, helping them along and loving them is the best thing you can do for them right now. I talked to someone too … multiple people actually, and I think we should embrace the world we’ve landed in a lot more than we’ve been doing. We can’t just rely on each other for everything. We need our friends and allies, not just for our own sake but for theirs as well. Like you said, we’re here to give them a chance at happiness.”

Naruto watched as the confidence in Obito’s gaze crumbled to pieces. His expression, so distraught, called out to her, and she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.  “So please, don’t close yourself off from those closest to you out of some misguided idea that you owe me or something. You don’t owe me anything else. All I want is for you to be happy, to believe me when I tell you that I’ve forgiven you. You hear that? I. Forgive. You.”

The tense of his shoulders lessened at her touch and Naruto shot him a smile filled with all of the warmth and love she could muster. “And maybe … maybe it’s about time you learn to forgive yourself too.”

“Naruto-”

“If the next words out of your mouth are about how much of a screwup you are, then I don’t want to hear it,” she interrupted with a huff. “I know that side of your story. I know about how much you ruined everything. But what about the rest of it?”

Obito eyebrows furrowed questioningly.

“When Sasuke did all of those terrible things to our allies and friends, I was angry at him for being stupid and horrible. Everyone was. But I also knew that he was hurting, that he was going through immeasurable pain and no one was there to help him through it. Over and over again, you and everyone else around him enabled his spiral until he was barely himself anymore. No one wanted to see how much sorrow he was going through, and why would they? He caused them pain, too. Their anger was justified. But I also think it’s worth it to understand that Sasuke was human just like the rest of us.”

A look passed across Obito’s face then, as though he wanted to argue her words, but Naruto quickly shushed him.

“Nope! I know not everyone will agree with me. And I know you think that you’re the scum of the earth that doesn’t deserve anything either. But I can’t not look at where you came from. What you were going through. You were grieving too, Obito, and you had no one around to show you any other way. And above else, you were just a kid. If I turn a blind eye to the humanity in someone else, doesn’t that make me inhuman too?”

“No, Naruto, it doesn’t. It makes you even more human,” Obito told her. “Humans are allowed to be controlled by emotions. Such is what makes us distinct and unique. It can be our biggest flaw sometimes, but I can’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to look past their anger and hate. It wouldn’t be any less than what I deserve.”

Angrily, Naruto reached up with her remaining hand and gripped his left shoulder, shaking him back and forth as though to snap him out of it. “Now you’re just being stupid again! I understand being upset for a while. Maybe it takes days, months, hell even years! But if we as humans don’t move on and don’t try to see the good then we’re no different than assholes like Danzo!”

When Obito’s eyes widened, Naruto quickly continued with her argument.

“He never let go of his hate and anger, and for that more people suffered. I have to believe that humans as a whole are better than that,” she told him. “Believe that your team is better than that. Hell, just remember Kakashi-sensei, from the future. The one who, even after everything you did, stuck by you.”

“We were running from Kaguya,” he argued timidly, looking away. “That was different.”

“Even without that, he would never want to let you go,” Naruto explained, as memories of her sensei clouded her thoughts.

No longer was she in Obito’s old apartment. She now stood on the battlefield, overlooking the back of his disfigured, pale frame as he gently held on to her sensei’s limp body. His shoulders shook and soft whimpers filled the air.

Tears slipped down her face at the sight.

“He’d just gotten you back. That’s why he was so willing to sacrifice himself,” she sniffed. “Because despite everything, he still wanted you to live.”

She had seen it, days before he’d taken his last breath. As everyone was settling down for the evening, Kakashi-sensei had looked at Obito’s sleeping figure and an expression of pure relief and affection painted his face. The moonlight shined a spotlight on their last moment of silent contentment and Naruto couldn’t help but stare.

There was no doubt in her heart that Kakashi-sensei wanted his former teammate to be happy. The emotions displayed on his face that night said it all. (If Naruto looked in the mirror, she’d see that same expression on herself).

The fog of the past lifted and Naruto blinked through her tears in time to see Obito’s own. The Uchiha’s shoulders shook beneath her hands as he grit back an onslaught of sobs. Naruto took the scene in before bringing him closer into a hug.

“It’s the same with me, Obito. I want you to live, too,” she murmured against his left shoulder. “You’re right that I’m allowed to be angry with you. But I’m also allowed to forgive you and I choose to do so. You hear me? I choose forgiveness.”

A guttural moan ripped past his lips then, as he finally leaned forward and wrapped his trembling arms around her. Naruto squeezed him harder as encouragement, feeling as though she had finally gotten through to him.

It was a warm embrace, until eventually Obito’s sniffling decreased. Slowly his head pulled away as a hand reached up and softly cupped her cheek. Naruto stilled for a moment and met his gaze.

She recognized that look. It was the one he had just nights before after their sparring session. He’d looked up at the stars, he’d looked at her … he’d smiled in content. It was all Naruto wanted from him. And she was seeing that expression now, but unbidden and more open.

… This whole time, Naruto had felt lonely.

Even with Kurama there, the reminder that her precious people were gone still weighed heavily on her. But recently, she’d been able to meet her father. She’d even met Kakashi-sensei as a child. She’d seen Teuchi-ojisan and Ayame-chan, hell Naruto had even been able to meet little Anko. And suddenly she could feel the warmth in her chest ignite. The possibility that she still had precious people, even if they weren’t the same, made her happy.

But it could never be enough. Not until Obito joined in her happiness. Not until her companion could be happy with her.

And now … after all these weeks, he finally looked ready to stand by her side and embrace the life they had before them. It brought more tears to her eyes.

Obito’s thumb pressed gently along her skin, wiping at the wetness that tried to spill down her cheeks. “Thank you,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”

Naruto whimpered.

“I’m sorry for taking so long to understand,” he continued. “I’m sorry for making you take on this burden alone.”

She nodded stiffly, biting her lower lip as it trembled.

“I’ve been a terrible partner.” He leaned his forehead onto hers, taking in a deep breath before saying, “But I’m going to do better. Because I believe you, and I want your forgiveness to be worth something. I can’t do this to myself when I have you counting one me, can I?”

Once again, she nodded, and a soft, amused huff escaped Obito’s mouth.

“And Kakashi. That sensei of yours is probably counting on me too,” he mused. “So I’m going to try, okay?”

“Good,” she muttered past her sniffling. “… Took you long enough, dattebayo.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry,” he repeated, softly.

After that, they fell silent. Naruto nuzzled closer to him, enjoying not only his warmth, but this newfound understanding they suddenly had of one another.

Finally, she rejoiced.

.

.

Finally.