Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

So, where exactly does one start a story? Well from the beginning I would think, but where is the beginning of a story? Is it in the middle of a great battle between two men as they decide the fate of future generations? Or maybe it begins in the moments when the very fabric of the world is still being created? Or as a baby wails to announce it's presence...

I don't know.

But this story begins with me. Sixteen and eagerly bouncing in my seat watching as the clock slowly ticks down towards midnight. Towards the exact moment that today becomes yesterday and night becomes morning.

As that moment arrives everything shifts, my fingers tap at the keys but... I'm no longer there. Rather spinning and twisting momentarily over my own body watching words spread over a blank document before spinning down and landing in darkness.

Darkness and warmth.

It's not exactly what I had been expecting and I simply sort of reside there not entirely aware of anything in particular. Simply darkness and a strange fuzzy sort of echo throughout my presence. An itch that spreads and curls through me as I wind up pulling myself close and closing my eyes in this dark watery place.

Drifting is almost too easy and I barely understand what's going on. I know that I'm safe though, safe and close to someone. Since I can hear a steady beating heart constantly in the backdrop. My senses though are incredibly dulled and I constantly find myself just curling in and allowing time to flow around me.

I don't feel hunger. Nor thirst or really anything that would say that I require relieving myself. It's peaceful if entirely disconcerting... And yet. There's someone or something else here with me. Another presence that brushes lightly against my own.

We barely touch and yet I know somehow that they're like me. Not supposed to be here.

Time flows, abruptly I feel a change. Bumping up against the other much more often. Until they're gone and I'm alone. Moving, down something. A tunnel or tube that makes me feel as though I'm being squeezed from all sides and...

Screaming fills my head as air brushes against my face. It's like a sudden breeze on an otherwise plain day. Entirely unexpected and not entirely welcome. Also it brings right to the forefront of my mind everything else.

I have been ripped from my own body and dumped into this place. What's going on? What was I? Clearly my body was still alive and moving since that had been it's last status before I wound up here. Also, there's this horrible itch within my body. The strange feeling that had accompanied me in the dark place is still there. It's within me and I don't like it.

It's so confusing and so I continue to scream. Until there's something in my mouth and I latch onto that instead.

The other presence is here to. Just beside me and it's a comfort that I didn't realize that I needed.

The fact is though this time passes incredibly quickly, since just like in the dark place my mind does not want to remain very aware for very long. So I drift more often than not and most of what happens goes way over me.

It's probably a very good thing that it does since one of the first things that I notice when I do finally stop being fuzzy is that everything is so big. Except my limbs and hands and, oh my gosh my tiny chubby fingers are adorable. Also fun to shove into my mouth.

Which yeah, okay. I'm not exactly the most mature of people. Sixteen in mind maybe but that doesn't mean that I won't play around like the child that I apparently am. Also, gumming on a fist is a rather good distraction from freaking out over this development.

Really it is. As is observing the one who I would assume to be my twin.

They're female as far as I can tell, yet that seems wrong somehow... Though I don't think that we're quite old enough to worry about that. And besides I'm now male in body so gender is kind of a moot point. Also dark hair and eyes. It tingles in my memory and I frown around my fist trying desperately to understand why that seems so familiar.

Familiar and sinister.

Black hair, black eyes. Spinning red circles in the air...

I shake my head a bit to clear it and kind of tumble over and release my hand to wave it into the air. The itch as well, which really it's nothing more or less than just that. A constant companion that's typically a hum or an itch within me.

Reminds me of the feeling of my blood traveling through my body really except faintly different and that also bugs me.

I am now a twin. I have been reborn without dying and been limited to a crib is the most mind numbing experience ever.

Seriously, I would give anything to be able to just do anything other than just stay here completely reliant on my parents and sibling to entertain me. They're horrible at it anyway. Speaking nonsense and kind of freaking me out with some of the other weird things that they do.

I'm giving up on logic here really I swear. Seeing someone just casually toss a kunai at a spider kind of does that. Also considering how fast the action happened I'm surprised with myself for even catching it.

Also impressed, very impressed. Still very bored all the time though.

There's only so long that the small things can really keep me occupied. I mean sure I may get incredibly distracted by them, but that's not a permanent solution. Besides there is such a thing as too repetitive after a while.

Which is what the small things tend to be. Staring at the wall tracing patterns with my hands and simply observing the world around me. Also waiting to grow up, it feels like forever. Also it's incredibly annoying.

Also, teething.

Here I thought it was bad when you were losing teeth or had new ones poking through right in the back of your mouth. But no, it's worse. A constant itch and irritation that just makes you cry because it won't stop and it's constant and no matter what you shove in there to try and distract yourself with it doesn't help.

My favourite thing to chew/gum on is currently a rubber kunai toy. It's the absolute best really and an incredible distraction from the constant itch. It also squeaks. Which is no end of entertainment to someone like me who used to steal the squeaky toys of dogs just to play with them at the age of sixteen.

Also, my twin seems to be going through the same pain. Among other things that I'm noticing about them. Like me, they seem to be older inside. Unlike me though they also seem to be desperate for the love that our shared parents can offer. Affection and care, which I fully offer as well since it feels like they desperately need it.

Also I'll admit that it's a strange comfort for even me simply resting against them with a toy in my mouth or loosely held in a chubby fist.

Since I can feel them. Along with the energy(since that's what I assume it is) in myself I can feel it in them and the air and everything here. It's kind of intimidating really because I can't stop feeling it and it changes every once in a while, shifting to accompany something that I apparently can't grasp.

At the edge of my senses there's also this feeling of darkness. Something watching and it makes me shiver in the faintest of breezes coming from outside. It's not a nice feeling being watched. It doesn't help that my twin also seems to have the awareness that something else is there as well.

That something's lurking.

Of course the fact that we're both aware, more aware than I'm pretty sure little almost toddlers should be. The fact that they're aware of the lingering darkness is as much of a warning as anything. It means that it's really there and that I should maintain my awareness of it. That I should be scared and should be prepared...

It also means that I should watch over my twin. Even if they're the elder sibling by however many minutes that doesn't mean that I won't watch over them just as much as they'll likely watch over me.

After all, we're twins. Two halves of a whole technically speaking.

Of course, I still don't know what kind of world that I've been reborn into. Or why, or how considering that I didn't die first. At least not until our parents finally decide to take us outside for a bit. The sun is evil I swear glaring down at us and burning our eyes as we try to peer around. To take in absolutely everything.

Or at least I do, my twin simply basks in the presence of our parents and that's perfectly fine. I am completely settled with them enjoying that.

No, what I'm unsettled by is a faintly familiar carved mountain in the distance. It's almost like Rushmore... But at the same time. Even if I can't see the faces they seem wrong.

Where the hell am I?

Chapter Text

So rolling around is interesting I guess. I'm almost one now and teething is finally over. I'm able to roll around and have at least a small bit of mobility back. Not that I'm really able to use it limited to a single room along with my twin under the ever so watchful eyes of our parents.

Which I suppose is actually a good thing considering how much trouble I am able to get into simply rolling around or trying to crawl. It's almost ludicrous really and I kind of laugh evilly to myself when I consider how they react when I disappear from their sight or somehow manage to reach things that I shouldn't be able to.

The ability to feel the flow of the energy within me is incredibly helpful with that actually. Also it's not like I'm ever in any real danger even when I do get into all sorts of trouble. The truly dangerous and possibly deadly things are kept well away from me and my twin.

Since you know we are still tiny babies. Also coordination is completely out of reach. As in completely out of reach, the best I can do is maybe shove things into my mouth. Or you know throw stuff at the wall.

Except that I can't aim, and more often than not I get whatever I'm trying to put into my mouth all around it or down my front instead.

Baby limbs are horrible to even try to attempt to control. It's like I tell them one thing and they instead do something completely different. It would be more annoying if I didn't have the habit of laughing at the thought of how adorably ridiculous it must look when I mess up and get covered in food.

Although I don't think that my twin is all that amused by the lack of control that either of us have. They always seem frustrated by their lack of ability to do anything really. Always seem frustrated that they have to rely on our parents. To be fair I'm frustrated by the same limitations but I at least don't bother worrying about it.

They do though. Along with their other worries it's kind of worrying. They seem to know something. More than I know about this place anyway. Always worrying and fretting, watching over me and fussing whilst basking in the presence of our shared parents. Basking in the attention that they give us. Basking in the care, which to be fair I do as well.

It's kind of one of the few things that I can do without worrying about boredom or how my past life might be affecting the way that I think.

Or even my new state. I don't know if loving this new family could be considered a betrayal, and I don't stop to wonder because I know that there's still another me with my old family. In some weird twisty way I just know this, so I move on and instead worry about my twin. My elder sibling who acts as though they know more about reality and life than they should. Who has these little or large rather... They have a worrying intelligence really tells. Who just seem to be so scared about something that I can't sense or see.

That I can't understand because even being a sixteen year old before I died holds no weight when I have no understanding of this world beyond magical reflexes and the energy within everything.

Beyond the sky and the clouds, the bright colours and hope for making some sort of impact on the world in the future. Beyond learning to grow up again, causing no end of headaches and worry for our parents.

And in the darkness of the night whispering to myself in English. Just to hear my own voice and to remember where I came from. Since that's one of the most important things really. I have to remember.

Have to remember even as the cold leaks in from outside and the days drag on. I have to remember exactly where I came from. So I talk about whatever I can just to remember, I've always been an auditory learner after all... With tactile second and finally visual...

I never was that good at remembering faces and places. Music on the other hand, the feeling of wind over my body and the movement that I made... So speaking about those things, telling stories to myself it helps me to keep in mind the world that I had been ripped from.

It also had the added bonus of kind of freaking my twin out. Which might be kind of cruel of me to find enjoyment in. Yet it proves that I am definitely still human.

I never claimed to be a saint after all. Even if I did mostly fail at the whole teenage rebellion thing. I was more rebellious as a toddler really. Even now, I'm more rebellious and annoying to everyone around me. Chaotic and stubborn simply because I can get away with pretty much anything. Well, mostly considering that I can't really do anything so that's a moot point.

And then it's our first birthday and so many people are coming just to meet us. Or at least acknowledge our existence. It's terrifying really because these people are all apparently related to us bar a small handful.

Also the hair colours make no sense to my mind. Green and blue naturally? I even thought that I saw someone with bright pink hair.

So there's that. It gives me a nagging feeling that I may have more familiarity with this world that I initially thought. Especially because such hair colours are something that's only ever really found in things like anime and manga and video games. Except that only gives me a base, a place to begin with wondering about where I am.

Really though I don't have much to go on, and there's also the problem that I really didn't pay all that much attention to the overload of anime and manga back home. Also I only maybe had a handful of video games that I regularly played and this world matches none of them.

Yet, there are clues around me. The name Uchiha, Hokage, War... Hints that stir up memories of conversations just overheard. Bits and pieces that slip into an almost cohesive picture but at the same time, I have barely any of the context.

No where near enough to surely say that I know where I am even as I rest with my twin and try not to worry about all the attention.

Try not to worry about the small hints that this is a very dangerous world. Then again what world isn't dangerous?

Yet there's something about this one that just feels more. A niggling in the back of my mind that chimes every time I hear someone mention the name Uchiha or call me an adorable little boy... Not that I really mind the whole boy thing. Gender is kind of a weird thing to get stuck on anyway I never understood why people fussed so much over whether someone was a boy or a girl. Although I really could do without people commenting on it constantly because it makes me feel so weird.

It's not a bad weird, just weird. I know that I never quite felt like a girl in my previous life but here and now being called an adorable little boy doesn't feel quite right either.

Maybe I'm just the weird one. Who knows.

It's not really important though, so I simply rest in my father's arms and observe as the adults mingle. It's not like either me or my twin can really do that much after all. We're only just now one. A single year old tiny and neither of us have spoken yet.

Well not officially anyway. And besides I wouldn't even know what to say as my first word anyway. It would likely be one of the rather typical ones. Yes, No, or perhaps mine.

Except those thoughts fly right out of my mind when there's an abrupt spike in the air. The feeling of pain and fear and a sense of someone screaming no over and over again in their head. My father shifts spinning around and I'm staring at my mother and my twin who's crying. There's a feeling of doom hanging in the air and a chill that races up and down my back as I kind of sink into my father's arms and try not to feel the blank space where mother's energy used to emanate from.

"Kaachan!" the word is so quiet in the air I'm almost convinced that it never came out. But there's a brief moment when father freezes as though he'd heard before continuing to reach for mother. I also reach for her but not because I want to know if she's okay. There's no energy in her, no feeling at all unlike what's in me, or father or my twin.

Nothing. It's gone.

My lip wobbles a bit and I can feel my twin's panic. I can feel their fear and desperation. I can feel it, both in the energy around them... And in the back of my own head. A link between us that I've mostly ignored because I don't know what it's supposed to be. Is it supposed to fade?

Grow stronger? Is it even supposed to exist at all?

I mean I'm aware of a legendary so called twin link that rumours were spread about in my previous life. But... I don't know if that were real and here even if I have some sort of feel that connects me to my twin, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be there. Whatever the reason for it though it's a relief now because I can send the feeling of calm and hope and apology down it to try and settle my twin. Death and disease and non-existence are normal after all. They happen to everyone eventually.

It doesn't work really because instead I end up bursting into tears and sobbing in our father's arms. My twin's emotions are much stronger than mine apparently and it shows. I whimper and my tiny hands fist in our father's vest. They don't stop and I press my head against his chest trying to block out the noise and energy around us.

It's almost painful to feel at the moment. So much just there that it's overwhelming and I really, really just want it to stop.

Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop.

My eyes squeeze themselves shut and I rest my head against my father's chest just that little bit more hands fisting tighter bunching up material. It hurts.

Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop.

I whimper pain filling my head and a ringing in my ears. The energy hurts and I just want it all to stop. I want the pain to go away. Why is it that pain has to plague my life? Seriously I have to wonder why. Because it hurts, so much.

It always hurts so much, like someone's dragging a knife through my skin and then rubbing salt in. Or twisting it with their movements. Or the old weight of rocks holding me down, a tightening in my chest and air cutting out. I can't breathe through the pain. I can't... I can't breathe and it's like my first attack all over again with that one particular tightness in the chest and loosening grip.

Yet there's a different sensation that nags at me and draws me out. A buzz in the back of my senses. Hands rubbing gentle circles on my back and also the feeling of desperate fear and pleading. I blink my eyes back open and suck air in desperately before breathing out.

It hurts less now. Fewer people are in the room... Which can probably be accounted for by the fact that we seem to be in the hospital now. Or a hospital room. I take another more controlled breath before shifting around a bit in the bed that I've been settled in.

I raise my head back up and look over at my father. He looks even more pale than he usually does. Probably because mother just died and then I some kind of fit in his arms for seemingly no reason. True adult fear right there I would guess. Also the fear in my twin's eyes kind of drives the point home.

Not my best moment.

Yet also not my worst either.

I've had many, many worse moments in my previous life as an average teenager. Seriously, I was probably one of the most problematic teens alive. Not because of any rebellious attitude, but because my health was absolutely horrible. Pain, was constant all the time. Like the itch of the unfamiliar energy in this life, but actually painful rather than irritating.

Pain, not an itch or irritation like a buzzing fly.

So to experience a shock like that is startling. Also a wake up call, since mental health plays a lot into your physical health... Everything's all interconnected and people all to easily forget that. People forget that when you're worried or anxious or scared, nervous and trembling it will take longer for you to recover physically or make it easier for you to get sick. Or to experience such a break down and an attack.

I am going to need to be a bit more careful in the future. A bit more aware of myself and my surroundings. I think that attack was a combination of social anxiety due to the large amount of people and the shock of our mother just suddenly no longer being alive.

Which is perfectly fair I guess. But still worrying, my hands fist a bit into the sheets and I hum even as my father moves to rest on the bed beside me. My twin reaches over and I offer a wane smile.

It's all that I can really manage in these moments. And a few months later it's pretty much the best I can do when it comes to smiles. Both of our parents are now gone and I have absolutely no response to that apart from forcing a smile and trying to pretend that I'm not hurting once more.

Yet in the night I sit up and look over at my sibling. It's a spur of the moment thing but it's all that I can do at that time.

"Sorry." the word is quiet but it fills the air between us and they sit up with wide eyes staring at me. I can almost read their thoughts just by the emotions of disbelief and shock that buzz in the back of my mind. But I can't, except I am aware of enough to continue with my apology because it's just to assure them that I don't feel very good about this situation either. "Still Sorry..."

After that I insert a single fist into my mouth and chew on it for a bit to keep my mind off of the buzz of energy and light pain within my limbs.

It helps but only just.

I dread the years to come. Especially since it only took one word for my mind to finally click the pieces together. Chakra... This is the world of Naruto. A world of shinobi and war and fighting... And one of those anime that I never really watched. Anything that I know about this world is absolutely useless because I'm not in the timeline with the main characters.

I don't even know when in the timeline I am...

I'm pretty much flying blind. And that's what scares me the most.

Since I'm in a fictional universe that I know in passing. I know that it's dangerous, I know that there's disaster and danger in the future. I know these things, but the exact details and players and importance of such things are completely unknown to me. I barely know anything about any of this.

I don't even know if I was in the prime timeline. Or the person who I am now... Although the name is familiar.

Uchiha Obito...

That's my name. And in this life I have an older twin, Uchiha Tomoko. Whether any of this is canon is unknown. But for now, I am simply going to have to suck it up and try my best to survive in this horrible world.

Because isn't that the best that any of us can do?

Chapter Text

So growing up is just as boring as my vague memories of being a two year old implied. Which is to say not actually boring at all because the chaos you can cause and get away with is absolutely fantastic. No one yells at me for covering the walls with scribble and ink... Well mostly.

I don't think that our grandmother really cares actually. Or notices.

Tomoko certainly does though and they scowl at me every time that I do it. Mainly since they're like me, older than they appear. And they know that I'm older than I act and appear so they get annoyed when I don't try to act as if I'm mature. But in all honesty being mature is boring. Boring, and I wonder how adults can possibly stand it all the time. Locked into their jobs with no hope of ever escaping the routine of working and doing paperwork and having to be polite all the time in case of insulting others.

As a child I can insult people and they'll take it at mostly face value.

I say mostly because I'm an Uchiha. From what vague and fuzzy recollections I even have of the Naruto world they're kind of expected to be uptight and kind of snobbish... Which I am definitely not. Well except in a few certain circumstances, but I try my hardest not to be a stick in the mud. After apparently being one up until the age of thirteen anyway...

Being responsible and having standards is apparently the same thing.

Though I am still bewildered that someone managed to think that I was calling them a whore when I tried to explain exactly why I was planning on waiting until at least the age of twenty to begin attempting to date others. Still don't know where the logic came from there.

Real world troll logic.

And here, there's elements of that kind of thought that my twin displays in the way that they attempt to keep us out of trouble. Which typically ends with us in more trouble because neither of us either due to the bodies we currently inhabit or our inherent nature are exactly very good at remaining out of trouble.

Or acting very proper.

Which to be fair, who in their right mind expects a pair of barely two year old children to be able to act all prim and proper and be fancy. Sure our twined onesies are adorable and also quite fancily made, but still.

We're both incredibly messy more than neat. Not to mention I love being able to get away with leaving stuff all over the floor and the walls. Nothing like what I had to with just thinking about cleaning my room back home...

Ugh, how it got covered in such dust and cobwebs even with me living and sleeping in there is a mystery for the ages.

Just, it's boggling how horribly run down my room looked compared to the rest of the house in hindsight.

I hope that the dust and cobwebs don't follow me here actually. That's just asking for me to somehow manage to set the house on fire or something equally as ridiculous by accident. As it is currently there's not really that much to do aside from toddle around and cause minor chaos, or well...

I do keep it toned down as best I can after all stressing out Grandmother would be nothing short of mean. I mean, she's just barely into her sixties, but still. Don't want to stress her out. Not that it means that I'm not a little brat just because. I'm just not as much of a hell raiser as I could be. And I know that I can be a hell raiser.

I know that just based on some of my worse tantrums in my old life. Some of my worse tantrums near the end of my existence there. Since I don't know what I am anymore since I know, I know that there's still a me there. I could really, really be a little shit at times. A brat and a bitch to be really blunt.

Yeah, I would willingly call myself a bitch because I knew that I could be one.

Of course here and now I am toning it down, mostly. Although that doesn't mean that I don't fuss. Although no where near as much as Tomoko who throws one of the biggest fits every single time someone tries to get them into a small dress, or a pink onesie. I don't blame them either, pink is one of the few colours that I just never found much of a fondness for.

I mean I know what pink represents in the context of psychology. It promotes love... But at the same time, it also means romance. There's also the fact that too often people just automatically associate it with feminity. Which I could not stand.

Male, Female. Masculine and Feminine? What do those really mean in the face of whether or not someone is a good person to know or whether they're just a jerk. I never really was able to understand gender beyond the fact that it was a thing. A concept, I never could quite grasp. I knew that there were people who were boys and people who were girls but beyond that it never really became something that I really could get.

People could call me a girl... They could say that I was female and I would refer to myself as such... But at the same time...

What does it even matter?

Here and now I'm in a mostly male body after all. That doesn't mean that I feel any more like a boy than I ever felt like a girl. It's still me... It's still who I am.

My twin seems to be having similar problems. Except that they also already seem to know what they are... Whatever that is. I don't think that we're quite to the point where I can ask without it seeming really awkward and weird. That and we're not even two yet. People that young don't quite have the sense of identity to really make that distinction.

Not for a long time yet... Maybe at the age of four? Four and a half?

I don't even know. This world is kind of screwball from what little I have seen and what little I actually know of the Prime timeline. I mean seriously, kids turning into animals or something like that... I don't really know there was something about a gargantuan kitsune with nine tails.

I really did not pay that much attention. The best I could tell you about the series was that it starred a blond boy, another boy with a duck butt styled haircut, a girl with pink hair and a man with silver hair in a mask.

Their names just kind of don't come to my mind either. I really did not pay attention to the series as mentioned.

So currently the best that either of us can do is really just deal with things as they come. Also throw tantrums and screaming fits when faced with something that we just do not agree with. Which in actuality is a lot more than I expected, why is there so much dark blue around this place. I know black is the colour most people think of when depression comes to mind. But the dark blue is also a depression colour.

Colours are so diverse and spectacular and they have meanings. It's awesome and annoying. Really though I want some more diverse and spread colours. Also if we have to be seen in blue, can it at least be light and calm, rather than dark and depressive.

Also the darker blue just reminds me of business and school uniforms... The military and control. It's a bit too much for me.

So I retreat, hiding away in what I think is a closet. Well, it's out of direct view anyway. And has a door kind of that I managed to close behind me. It's cosy really and that's fine comfortable really. I curl up pulling my legs up and hugging them to myself. I've had enough of the outside for today.

Had enough of dealing with blue and pink and listening to my twin disagreeing with the choice of clothing that grandmother picked for today. To be perfectly honest a large part of me is upset that I haven't been put in any dresses because I'm a boy now. I may not have been the fondest of dresses but I still wore them occasionally.

Occasionally.

Which really meant very rarely. I really was more of a shorts and pants person rather than inclined towards dresses or skirts. Also never would you catch me in heels. Yet there's still this sense of mourning and loss over the fact that no one's trying to dress me up to make me look adorable.

So instead I hide away... I'm not jealous.

Really I'm not. Besides Tomoko appears to absolutely hate the whole thing and quite loudly protests. It's a routine I guess. I don't even know.

I take a deep breath and bury my face a bit hair still no where near long enough to give me any shelter. Sitting here in the dark simply listening to the chaos outside is nice. I can flee into my imaginary world and ignore the fact that things don't make the most sense... Also I can practice.

Take a deep breath and hold it focusing on the flow of energy within.

Focus, and feel the hum and the buzz. It's not so much of an itch anymore as just a presence of warmth and comfort and feeling it like this allows me to concentrate. To really feel alive.

I shift a bit and let myself uncurl instead kneeling. Bringing my hands out in front of myself I kind of bow and with tongue moving to stick out of the side of my mouth I try to draw the energy out.

It's only a small glow, but the feel of it on my face and as it lights up the space that I'm in. It's blue, light blue. Faint memories stir, throat chakra the right to speak and express yourself. Trust and loyalty. Planning and organization...

My eyes close and I fist my hands still able to feel the energy faintly buzzing over them ready to be drawn back inwards if I felt the need to. In fact that's really what I'm doing here. Practicing the glow, for control and understanding how the energy, how chakra works outside the body. And of course for understanding how it flows throughout my body. The feeling of it within me is enough to help me be aware of it, but it's times like this sitting in the dark and solitude with nothing but the glow of my own chakra that help me understand.

I pull it back and wind it together. Envisioning a ball of threads within and pulling it all back. Compressing and pretty much leaving myself blind.

It's rather terrifying really. Pulling it all back into myself and out of my own limbs. It leaves me feeling even weaker than the two year old that I currently am. Even weaker than the child that I appear as. Yet at the same time, keeping it compressed allows me to work on making myself stronger without it... And reminds me of the feeling that I had in my original world.

Also it makes me aware of other feelings in me. The blood that rushes and pounds through my body, the pulse of my heart and my own breathing. It's a sort of hyper-awareness that I'm used to, but at the same time.

There's no pain... Not even a single feeling of pins and needles.

It's so disconcerting. My chakra may hum and buzz but it doesn't hurt it comforts and that terrifies me. You would think that I would appreciate the lack of pain, but really I was at the point where pain was the single constant in my life that I could always expect. To be in pain was more normal that to not be.

So feeling none is this weird novel and terrifying thing. Which is another reason I bring myself down to normal I guess.

After all if keeping my chakra so compressed and immobile makes me feel weaker then surely, surely that's a good alternative right? It's not like it's dangerous right?

Fact is I really don't know. So far I can actually keep my chakra compressed until I fall asleep. No detrimental results at all aside from a deeper sleep than usual and of course the extra work that I have to do to really do anything. Even just crawling around, which might be why everyone believes that I haven't learnt to walk yet. It's not that I haven't, it's just it takes so much freaking effort.

That and crawling is a lot faster.

Mostly.

So I make my way back out and run right into my twin. Right into Tomoko. In a green dress this time which to be fair is a lot better than pink although they really, really don't look any happier about that. They also seem rather bewildered by me, staring at me with a wide eyed look that quite clearly conveys that they didn't know I was there.

I call that a win. Normally they're very, very good at finding me even when I compress my chakra.

I think that it's due to connection that we share... Which has thus far done absolutely nothing except give me some really, really strange dreams. I mean it's not like I haven't dreamt of a sea of blood before... Or being trapped in a cave all alone before... But some of the content is pure what the fuck all around.

Glowing red moon, swirling marks a roaring beast and the feeling of fighting someone else with so many conflicted emotions just rushing through my very being.

All of those dreams are from the connection. All of them, standing overlooking a river with the whispers of an illusion, lengthy black hair and hiding behind a mask. Hand through someone else's chest and crackling with energy.

They're memories, I know that because occasionally they mix with my own to form some seriously weird experiences. Riding a roller coaster only to abruptly be standing on the head of a giant kitsune and fighting a man in white for example. Among other smaller things. The best ones are the ones where we're both there across from one another in the mindscape and able to see who we were.

Who we are.

Yet I never remember those dreams, mainly because they're not notable enough. So I just grin at my twin and tilt my head a bit. They're not amused and they puff out their cheeks causing me to laugh.

I am not sure whether I should really be enjoying their discomfort this much but I do. I may be sorry that they had to experience our parents death and remember. I may be sorry that they're an older person forced to grow up again. But that doesn't mean that I won't enjoy completely being a child.

It won't mean that I won't troll the hell out of everyone by simply growing up and having moments when I seem more mature.

Since hey, if I were called immature at times in my last life then this life will likely have the opposite effect right?

Right?

Anyway, it's not like the fact that I'm a reincarnation is important... Keeping that hidden from everyone can't be too hard...

Well I give a small look to my twin. I might tell them later on... If they truly are also a reincarnation like me.

After all we probably need to be able to trust one another... We'll need to know at least a little bit about one another to do that. Even if it's not anything more that maybe our old names... And a little bit about what we did or didn't like...

It's not like anything bad could possibly come out of that right?

Right?

Maybe I'll just see what happens in the future.

Chapter Text

So apparently some things stay completely consistent across all lives. My passion for reading, writing and all things creative is definitely this. As soon as our calligraphy lessons began I pretty much ate them up. Where my twin scowled at the paper I grinned and pretty much lit up. Although my chubby hands are definitely not productive towards writing or drawing.

It's still fun though and every spare minute that I get I now also practice my calligraphy. The characters for my name especially. It's calming and familiar. Something that I can simply do without anyone really fussing too much over it.

As soon as I start getting decent, and grasp the characters a lot better I begin to weave stories. Swirling them across the paper given and simply grinning to myself as I tell tales half forgotten or never even began.

It's nice. Even if half the time my twin stops me and tugs me away with a look of pure terror on their face over whatever it is that I'm writing.

It's not like it's dangerous though.

I mean my chakra is even more tightly leashed than even some of those dogs back home that wore muzzles to prevent them from biting. It would seriously take some extreme bad luck for me to slip up at this point. A lapse in concentration won't really shake that control either... Because once it's curled up it just remains there until I decide to allow it to flow once more... Or fall asleep. Whichever comes first.

It's a subconscious split of my attention.

It doesn't take much effort and I'm not worried. Even if my twin is.

"Obito!" they hiss and I look up from my paper putting the ink brush off to the side with an unimpressed look on my face. "it's dangerous!" they sound so sure of that and I roll my eyes.

I pick the brush back up and continue the pattern completely ignoring them. This is also a routine, and one that I'm quickly tiring of. I know that words here can have power. But, I'm pretty sure that requires intent and also quite clearly chakra which as I've said I have tightly leashed and locked up.

"Obito please" I barely raise my head to respond.

"Leash!" it's got enough meaning to convey my message and I can hear them huff in displeasure before moving away. It almost makes me feel guilty but I just really can't be bothered right at this moment.

I'm far more invested in my calligraphy right now. In my writing and creating. It's like writing and drawing at the same time really. Since the characters can be moved around and painted in such a way that it's pretty much creating a beautiful art piece as it is creating a story for others to read and tell.

Also there's nothing about controls or active dangers. No explode symbol or runes half remembered from websites. Nothing that could be twisted into anything actually dangerous... Just stories that have been waiting to be told.

Just stories that can't really be weaponized.

At least I don't think that they can be.

I look up when a shout pierces the air to see our grandmother standing in the open sliding door. Tomoko stands beside her looking smug. I would groan but it's not unexpected really. Again it's all routine really.

Tomoko is really only trying to keep me safe. I know that better than anyone really. I just kind of wish that they would try a little less at times.

"Harmless! See" I say moving to the side a little and letting Grandmother see exactly what I've been writing. And really it is harmless. A short little story about a dog and a candle... There might have also been something about a mouse but I wasn't entirely clear on all the details that I worked in.

"Obito!" she doesn't sound disapproving, more worried and I frown before taking a deep breath and blowing it out in a sigh.

"I know. I know... Don't write patterns without someone watching" it's amazing that I can say that so clearly. Then again I'm now three and a half. Also we've started learning stretches and warm ups in the morning.

Tomoko insisted on it.

The routine is in fact incredibly annoying and draining to me. I don't enjoy it at all... Well okay maybe a little. Also we've finally figured out a bit more about our shared connection. Finally figured out how to use it properly.

Which mostly means that we get into poke battles mentally rather than physically.

Siblings are like that after all. There to drive you almost insane with their antics. Although I am much better at it than Tomoko is and it shows in most of our interactions. They judge situations before running in. I just kind of judge for a moment before running in anyway and going with the flow. I'm good at that, a snap decision and a snap plan.

At this stage though it's not as though I really need to be good at slowing down and planning though. Adaption however is key to a lot of things. So I'm working on that, seeing how much chaos I can get into even just in the house and testing my limitations. Which is mostly keeping my charka completely contained and practicing my stealth by following Grandmother's example.

She was definitely a shinobi at some point and it shows in her body language. It doesn't matter that she's in her sixties. She's still very clearly dangerous and I almost want to dare someone to attempt to kidnap either me or Tomoko.

It would not end well at all... For the kidnapper specifically.

Our Grandmother is a freaking badass.

It's so awesome. Now I just kind of want to go back to my calligraphy. So I look back down at it and then up at her with the best puppy eyes I can do.

"No Obito. How's about you try practicing some of those stretches I showed you?" she says and I jut out my lip into a pout. I don't like the stretches. She laughs and it's a light and carefree sound. I really like it. "Come on now Obito. Surely you don't want Tomoko to overtake you?"

That sparks it and both of us trade heated challenging looks before running off ready to practice our stretches. And tumbles, it's not like I don't know what they're preparing us for. But I'm actually kind of looking forwards to it, if only because it's such an interesting opportunity. Also because I can't really imagine any life as a civilian in this world.

Especially not as an Uchiha... Every member of the clan that I've met so far has been either a member of the Shinobi Corps or they've been part of the Military Police. The latter option does not interest me at all.

Way, way too stressful. Seriously, I don't even have to go outside, don't even have to be grown to know that the default setting of the clan is stressed and frustrated. Trying to pretend that we have everything under control when it comes to the crime reported by the civilians.

Seriously you would think that for a Shinobi Village there would be less of it. Nope, if anything there's an equal amount of crime here as there was in my previous life... And unfortunately less people to deal with it because the Uchiha are the police. The only police.

Our pride gets in the way of even asking for help there.

I stretch my hands up above my head and twist a bit watching my twin. The stretches are simple really but I just don't enjoy doing them... After we're finished it's tumbling practice. Which reminds me of learning front and back rolls during gymnastics for the three years that I done them...

I don't even know why I stopped... Something about the place being closed down?

It's not even important really. Since here and now I'm learning new things along with my twin. New things that are likely to be very important in the future. Unfortunately it's a lot of work and no one enjoys work. Especially when they're keeping their chakra compressed. I tire vastly sooner than Tomoko and soon stop panting from exsertion... I actually lasted longer that time. It's only a small triumph really even as Grandmother comes out with some lemonade(at least it tastes like lemonade) and cookies for us to enjoy while we're resting.

It's a lot of work preparing to even learn the basic katas, and also to get ready to go to the shinobi academy in a few years. I don't even know if it'll be worth it in the end.

We're barely over our toddlerhood after all. Only just three and a half. I know that it's effective and we are improving but how much will that really matter when it comes to actually learning to be a shinobi.

How much will stretches and physical conditioning matter when it comes to chakra, and socialization and history? How much will any of this matter? I don't think that it will be enough. It's just a feeling that I get. I don't feel as though any of it will be enough to truly prepare either of us for what's coming. For the challenges in the future.

This world is good at throwing curveballs at you after all from what little I do know of the 'prime' timeline. What I know of canon.

So I actually am putting one hundred and ten percent into this. Even if most of my enthusiasm is for calligraphy and other creative stuff this physical training is also important. Even if it's only tumbling and stretches. A couple of swings and flips. It seriously is like gymnastics actually... The basics at least.

Makes me feel incredibly nostalgic really. Also reminds me of my little leopard print leotard. I was what seven when we stopped doing it... Besides it was our teams theme.

I shake away the memories and sip at my lemonade watching as my twin immediately proceeds to jump right back into their training. As they proceed to continue stretching and tumbling. I simply sit and watch. I'm not exactly as good as they are at this kind of stuff. I'm keeping up, barely, but I am.

Of course, this is with my chakra compressed and leashed. If I allowed it to flow freely who knows how much better I would be doing. Who knows how I would stack up.

I certainly don't. I'm sure though that I would likely be better than Tomoko. Also, I know that because of the suppression it's likely grown. Chakra is incredibly strange in the way it works. It expands and grows based on the way that you use it... And keeping it suppressed the way that I am seems to be encouraging it to grow and expand. I know that people who train themselves to exhaustion get that same boost since it replenishes above it's original limit... But I don't know the logic behind it.

Physical training encourages the growth of the physical half, the Ki. Meditation and controlling your breathing encourages growth of the spiritual half, the Chi.

So does just growing. Growing improves both. Yet as I am, I've discovered that it's growing as I keep it suppressed and controlled. Probably because it means that I'm working harder just to function and keep up with everyone else my chakra kept tightly contained.

It means that eventually I'll be able to surprise others I think.

But for now it just makes me look weaker, smaller and more vulnerable. Which is fine. I have my family after all, and training with these limitations just make it that much more worth it. Besides it makes my twin feel better that they're the stronger one. For now anyway, I can feel how much they want to be able to protect me, how much they need to protect me.

If I can play into the illusion that I need that protection and allow them to feel as though they're able to, that's fine.

It's not like I don't enjoy the sentiment. The feeling that someone is there looking out for me. Even if they're only just older. Even if in the long run we'll probably both be looking out for one another in equal measure. Since I can feel their emotional fragility as clear as the sunshine illuminating the planet. As clear as the full moon in a sky empty of stars.

I hit the bottom of the cup and set it down beside me. I take a deep breath and stretch myself out before bouncing to my feet.

Moving through the stretches also faintly reminds me of watching people practice dancing really. Raising fingers up as far as you can keeping feet flat as you bend over and reach for your toes. Twist, posture. It's amazing really and some of these stretches echo of those exercises I was once given in an attempt to help me with my pain. Really though, I just like to see how well I can now flow through them. How well I'm able to shift from one to the next in an uninterrupted movement.

I may be slow, slower than my twin. But there's no stiffness or faltering movements in my body. I start and then I stop at the end. Humming to myself an absent tune that suits me just fine.

It's actually a touch haunting and I can see when Tomoko stumbles over one of their stretches. I can see when they spin wide eyed to stare at me as I began to tumble. Tuck and roll. And then... A handstand.

Hands flat against the ground and legs as straight as I can get them as I balance there. I hold it, and close my eyes. It's not really anything special but it does actually strain a bit before I lower myself back down and shake it out a bit. Looking over to my twin and Grandmother I smile and shrug.

Before clapping my hands together. It's simple enough really, and throwing stuff like Handstands in doesn't really disrupt it or change anything really. After all I really do consider this a lot like gymnastics.

It's all practicing and flow and rhythm. Smoothing out your reflexes and maintaining flexibility.

It's amazing really. Yet because I'm me I also tend to toss in other things that don't fit as just stretches. A couple of jumps in place, testing balance for landing on one leg and then the other, holding, stretching up maintaining that pose.

Then dropping down and stretching with my legs right out in front. Arms reaching again for the toes but this time parallel with a straight back. Seriously though, it's fun and entertaining, a return to stuff that I had almost forgotten.

Some of the stretches also reminded me of Yoga and some stuff that we'd done at the start of the day during Primary School for whatever reason...

School could be weird sometimes.

Then again, coming from the person who was known by everyone just by her reputation of being the single most weird person in the school... I don't really think that it applies. I mean seriously, everyone knew me back home, I don't know how they knew me but they all knew me. Always with a greeting so I don't know whether I could call anything weird or strange without sounding like calling the kettle black.

At least here and now I'm having fun growing up and learning alongside my twin. And causing complete bewilderment at times when I slip into English.

It's fun.

Chapter Text

"I know that you're like me!" the words come out of my mouth so easily and I see them freeze. I see the way that my twin tenses as though they hadn't expected me to confront them about their status as a reincarnation.

Their status as just a touch stranger than a child should be. To be fair though, they haven't confronted me over it. But our forth birthday just ended and I am sick of this. I am sick of feeling as though there's some kind of barrier between us.

I know they want to protect me, they're trying so hard to protect me. But It would help me more if I knew why.

There's been other hints. Over our training that they already know this kind of stuff. They're already aware of this world and this reality. They know and so I have to confront them, I have to understand.

"You were reborn as well." My words are quiet and I can see Tomoko spin around eyes flying wide. A smile stretches over my face, it's faint, kind of mocking as well. "But unlike me you know already. You know this world. You know this place!" I raise my head and I can see their fear and incertainty.

"H-how?" they ask chewing a bit on their lower lip and looking around the barely moonlit room that we shared.

"It's not too hard." I hum and curl up in the sheets around me "After all. I was reborn as well. From that per-spac-tive it's easy." I yawn and pull my sheets higher "Also, you're hor-ri-ble at being a child."

"Yeah well..."

"Are you a boy?" they splutter and I roll back over to face them with such a serious expression on my face. It's a really, really important question to me. "Because I was a girl previously... Or at least I think so... I never quite felt like one. And now I don't quite feel like a boy." I shrug and they stare at me before clearing their throat awkwardly.

"Y-yeah... I was a boy..."

"Then you're still a boy" I say it with a certain finality to my tone and he stares at me. "If you believe that you are... I don't judge" really I don't. If someone claims that they're a boy when they have breasts and a vagina then that means that they're a boy. Genitals or not. "I mean... I don't even know what I am..."

He's completely silent staring at me with such a gobsmacked look. It reminds me vaguely of the time I had a freak out over growing up and crushes and why wasn't I experiencing the normal teenage things. Except this is kind of different... Maybe it's closer to my bewilderment with someone taking one of my statements as me calling them a whore.

A hand moves to the back of my head and I scratch it through my hair nervously.

"I mean... It's not like I care really." and honestly I didn't. Gender was not something that really ever crossed my mind as important. Boys could be bitches just as much as girls could, along with the fact that girls could be jerks. Everyone could be either. Or both. "Besides... Why does it even matter that you don't match?'

I probably sound like a huge grade A jerk with that statement. I have no experience with body dysphoria not really. Nor gender dysphoria. I'm comfortable in my body even now when it's my second life. However that works.

"Wait... So you're accepting that I'm a boy?" he asks with such a dumbfounded expression and voice that I snicker. "And you're non-binary or something?"

My hands actually twitch and fist at the label. Something about it... It makes me feel wrong and yucky and as though something about it is taking away from my identity as a human.

"No!" I hiss the word and I can see Tomoko's shock, surprise and maybe a touch of fear. "Never non-anything! It feels... It feels..." I can't even put how it feels into the words that I know. "Just no... Not non-binary."

"You..." he falters and bites his lip a bit. "You sounded rather scary there..." he says and I offer an apologetic look.

"Yeah well..." I shake my head and sit up again moving from my futon over to his. "I always had some trouble with my temper" I laugh a bit before falling completely silent.

We both remain completely silent for a little while before I stand once more and decide to wander down to the kitchen and fetch a cup of water. It's easy enough to apply the little amount of stealth I know to that task. I think carefully about what's important here.

I've now got confirmation on the reincarnation fact. I'm not alone. I'm not alone in this strange situation.

Is that a good thing? A bad thing? I don't even know.

I walk slowly back to the room to find my twin kneeling in the center of the room waiting.

"We're going to need to talk about this aren't we?" I say with a carefully blank look. It probably fails but I see Tomoko nod his head. "So where do we begin? With our deaths..." I kind of trail off with the weird realization that even though I've been reborn I never really died in the first place. It was more like I got snatched and then dumped into a second life because the Shinigami or whatever god was trolling. Stuff to think about later I suppose.

Except how would I even explain that. I was getting ready to write a story for NaNoWriMo and then suddenly found myself being ripped from my own body? Yeah no, I'll figure something out later.

"How's about we not." Tomoko says with a look that quite clearly displays his distaste with that idea. I have to agree.

"Yeah... Okay that was a bad idea." I rub the back of my head and awkwardly maneuver to sit down with the cup of water between my legs. "Maybe just general details then... What our past lives were like... Enjoyed and didn't. Maybe a bit about where we lived." I hum and take a sip of the water closing one eye automatically in my own thoughts.

"That sounds a bit better." Tomoko agrees and he takes a deep breath before continuing. "I was an Uchiha... Previously, so to be reborn as one again is... Well en-ter-as-ting." he frowns and mutters under his breath repetitions of the word.

"It certainly is" I agree whole heartedly with that sentiment. It is interesting if annoying because who wants to grow up again and experience the horror that is puberty. My horror must show on my face because I can see Tomoko blanch with the realization for himself.

We both fall into an awkward silence after that. Mostly because the thoughts of puberty in the opposite bodies to our original ones is kind of heart stopping in that way where your mind goes to things that you really, really don't want to think about. I mean, now at least I won't have to worry about excruciating abdominal pain and nausea. I wonder and worry though over whether that would be Tomoko's symptoms. Considering everyone is different.

It makes the air between us even more awkward actually.

"Um... My old world operated more with tech-nol-o-gy" I finally say trying to get past the awkwardness of my realization about Puberty and what a disaster it's likely to be. Oh hormones how I dread you. "Everyone had laptops and ipads..." he probably doesn't have clue what those things are but now I'm on something of a roll.

Talking about the world I grew up in. Sharing facts about the technology, what kind of shows I had enjoyed. My brother, my family... Only small facts, or general information that anyone who went to school with me would have known.

It all sort of comes bubbling out. And then I'm crying, because I don't even know if this is normal. I don't know if this is something that happens often, or if I'm some exception to a rule. Tomoko awkwardly moves to stand beside me and rubs my back.

The cup of water is on the mat tipped over and spilling out.

"No use... No use crying over spilt milk..." I mutter bringing one sleeved arm up to try and wipe away the lingering tears. "I miss them..." it's quiet and I can see Tomoko's understanding. "I miss my old life... I even miss the things that I never part-ici-pa-ted in. Like wearing dresses" my voice is so quiet.

"Heh... At least you didn't die twice." My head kind of snaps up and I stare at him with such wide eyes. He takes a deep breath and slowly explains. "I did mention that I was an Uchiha right?" I nod slowly. "Well the first time I died as a hero... The second I was the villain to the whole world."

That actually doesn't surprise me as much as it should have. Something about it sounds so familiar really. Tickles something in my memory about the numerous spoilers about Naruto that I had heard. Except that I can't quite match it up with anything. At all, it is just a statement to me really and eventually I shrug.

"Fair enough. I'm not even sure if I really died after all."

"How can you not know if you died or not." he sounds so bewildered and I snicker more tears almost spilling out.

"Because I was just getting ready for NaNoWriMo... The abruptly I was yanked out of my own body as it continued... And now I'm here." I frown and rub at my eyes one more time "so did I die?"

"I have no idea..." that sparks a round of laughter before I frown. Tomoko hasn't mentioned his name at all. Then again neither have I, but if he were truly and Uchiha. Who was also somewhat from the future then wouldn't that be important? I open my mouth to ask and he shakes his head. "No. Who I was previously is not important. Because out existence nullifies that outcome."

Okay, that's a valid argument, but it's also dodging the question entirely.

I give him a scowl and he can tell exactly how annoyed I am by that dodge. He offers a cheeky grin before bounding up and out of the room.

"Tomoko-nii!" I shout after him giving chase with absolute glee. Releasing my chakra and cycling it through my body we pretty much cross the house twice before Grandmother eventually shows up and attempts to stop us. We both dodge away and glare at one another careful, mindful of our Grandmother since we really don't want to hurt her.

She sighs and we both look up at her sheepish. It's not exactly something that we really planned. But her exasperation automatically draws our attention. We really do care for her a lot. Neither of us particularly want to stress her out too much, and even if we do wind up chasing one another around we always stop when she needs us to.

She is after all the only caretaker that we have.

That's pretty damn important, she's pretty damn important. She is our protector and healer. Our teacher and provider.

We try our best to not completely run her into the ground. We help in the small ways that we can. Keeping our own areas clean and picking up after ourselves. It's important really, because it's how we show that we care.

How we show that we know where the lines are drawn.

Of course, we both still have our moments.

"Sorry Obaachan." we both say in synchronization. Each of us in a slightly different sheepish pose. "We're just playing!"

"Okay." she sounds so skeptical and we both keep our forced grins firm on our faces. "Now back off to bed with you" it's more playful now and we both race back to the room giggling. Or at least I'm giggling Tomoko-nii's not. I can still tell that he's amused though.

For now it's enough really. We'll discuss things more in depth later.

Hopefully.

But seriously, for now it's enough. It's really time for bed.

Chapter Text

So being four isn't all that much better than being three really. And now is also the time when we're started on our history lessons. Most of which seem incredibly biased. Not that history ever isn't but so much of it is proclaiming how awesome and powerful the clan is. How many battles they fought in and won. Bias towards everyone else calling them weak or plebian also the bias towards the Senju... Whoever they are.

It's kind of brain numbing really. But I'm not entirely immune to it because all of it is slanted in our favour. History really is written by the victors after all.

And the losers, but most people don't pay attention to their side of the story. Not typically, it's probably why war never stops. The people who get trod on all the time do eventually bite back after all. Here and now, where the Uchiha are mostly cut off I get to see a lot of it. The frustration that the adults all tend to carry around and the hurried mess that people make trying to appear organized and in control to all outsiders.

They claim that it was all Tobirama's fault. That he was the one who pretty much cut them off from the rest of Konoha by placing the compound closer to the outside. By instructing the Military Police to be entirely Uchiha run...

I'm not so sure about that. After all, from my point of view we're not exactly doing that much to improve relations with the rest of the village. Or to get help with the Police either.

Clan Pride can be blamed for both of those things.

"Ne... Tomoko-nii." I speak up looking up from the history sheet that we were supposed to be reading. Tomoko clearly already knew this stuff. He looks over at me with a bored look. "Why is this all so bland?" and it really is. Everything on the sheet is just this battle was won by blah blah Uchiha or something similar. Even the notes on the founding of Konohagakure and who triumphed in what battle during which war were just so bland and told straight that it was boring.

Nothing like history in my old world. With projects where you would make a timeline for yourself and even write snippets in your own viewpoint on what it might have been like to live in such a time. An essay or short story on the world and it's history.

Learning it this way though.

"It's so bore-ing!" I whine my mouth opening wide as I purposefully stretch the word a bit. "Tomoko-nii why are we learning this way? What happened to the fun kind of learning?" do shinobi even have a fun kind of learning? Whatever. I frown and then suddenly bound to my feet a grin lighting up my face.

Tomoko looks faintly panicked but I ignore him as I scramble across our shared room and towards the cupboards. It's not like there's anything dangerous in there unless you count the calligraphy supplies that I pull out.

I might as well mix a bit of calligraphy and maths into this.

"I might as well make my own fun way!" I cheerfully state before pulling out a sheet and dipping one of the brushes in ink. Tomoko-nii is right there of course a frown on his face and hand catching my wrist. I don't falter, don't pause. "Tomoko-nii it'll be fine. I'm just timelining!" besides it'll likely help me to remember it easier. Although seriously, there's not much general history here. Mostly clan stuff.

We'll probably learn the rest later.

"If you say so..." he doesn't trust me but releases my wrist anyway. Instantly my focus is on inking a line and jotting down a couple of names around where the timeline begins... Which is not many really. History here is not really all that in depth. Especially when compared to the history of my previous life. So much of it is biased and also vague with some events seeming to be completely missing or skipped over only mentioned in the off hand sense.

Also since most of it's clan stuff there's a lot on who was clan head at what time and specific rivals with what other clans.

Seriously though, even here there seems to be a ridiculous amount of censorship and bias. Especially with how the battles were won and why someone became the clan head.

Still though so much censorship.

It's to the point where I almost wonder what the clan is expecting for the future. Since they have more or less white washed any failures in our history. Except the ones against the Senju Clan. And even they're not exactly expanded on as much as they're ranted about with little to no context.

It's worse than trying to figure out the whole Vikings thing based only on movies. Also learning about medieval knights and armor and... I drop my brush and pull my shirt up to cover my face so that I don't scream in absolute fury and confusion about the complete lack of coherency in our history.

It's insane how many gaps there are. Sometimes the jumps just don't seem to make any sense. I could blame some of that on the fact that a lot of it is from the Warring States period of time but really there is no excuse for some of it. The worst parts though are the ones where I can see that someone wrote something and then someone else came and crossed it out writing something completely different.

It makes certain events highly contradictory and confusing and why the hell are four year olds allowed to even look at this stuff as censored as it is?

It all makes my head hurt so much.

So I finally just drop it all and decide to go with: Wars were fought, the Uchiha won half the time, lost the rest and had a huge bias towards the Senju. Trying to figure out anymore basically led to fury and frustration.

Tomoko seems highly amused by my reaction with his smug grin which I barely acknowledge with a glare. It's not even worth it really.

"Ne... Tomoko-nii... It's all so con-tra-dic-tory." I'm whining again and he snorts putting down his own scroll before agreeing.

"Yeah, probably why I didn't even bother with it. Just wait until we're actually in the Academy, it'll be even worse!" he says and I groan because no. I don't want it to be worse. What happened to clear records through archaeology? Or even studying old documents and letters? Oh I know, the shinobi system.

I wonder if those in the capital of Hi no Kuni have better records? Even if those records are just for the civilian side. Shinobi history is absolutely horrible. Not even due to the bloodshed and wars either but really because of how little solidarity there is to it.

"It's all supposed to be at least linear!" I whine rolling over and point to one spot where someone is actually stated to die, before pointing further down when they apparently die a second time. "And nobody should be able to die twice in that way!" I add and Tomoko barely glances over it before huffing and crossing his arms.

"I did"

"Yeah, but that was years into the future." I wrinkle my nose and glare at the sheet. "Also you were kidnapped and brain-washed... Along with the fact you kept your continued existence a secret. It doesn't count"

"Yes it does!"

"No Tomoko-nii. It doesn't." I hum before adding "And neither do our rebirths." He snaps his mouth back shut and glares at me. "So it doesn't count at all" I say with that particular air of finality that he absolutely hates. "And anything that the old man told you is suspect by default anyway... Memory fails if left long enough after all."

He nods his head and then sighs flopping back over onto the tatami covered floor.

"I know... It can also be tampered with..." it's quiet but still loud enough for me to hear and I grimace. The reminders in that statement are enough for me to automatically fist my hands and feel like storming out of the house just to find a bastard to punch in the face. I don't know if I have the strength to break their nose, not at this age. But the satisfaction it would give me...

"Hate those a-bom-i-na-tions." I growl hands slowly clenching and unclenching as I attempt to maintain at least an illusion of control over my temper. An illusion of control because thinking about those things called Zetsu, the creatures that are more plant than anything else, entirely artificially made.

Although recalling them makes me think of something else... It niggles at something in my mind. Another spoiler half forgotten maybe?

Really though those things are just so mysterious even Tomoko-nii's memories of them are kind of weird.

"Yeah, well..." he sighs and rolls his eyes. "That's something that we can agree on. They're weird and creepy and..."

"Fertilizer. Eldrich Horrors." I laugh at his rapid blinking and attempt to form a response to that. "They're kind of stupid as well." I decide before standing up and turning back to my history work. "How far back do you think the rabbit hole runs?" it's an honest question considering his mumbling of a rabbit goddess in his sleep every now and again.

A question that leads into a period of pure silence between us. It would be nice, if it weren't terrifying. Neither of us are exactly quiet people. So for this silence to continue stretching it would seem rather ominous to anyone who recognised that.

Who knew us.

Which basically means our Grandmother.

She doesn't just magically appear though. In fact she's out of the house at the moment, so we're in the clear in our silence. In our ominous silence really.

"Do you think that maybe they're connected to the Slender Man Mythos of my old world?" my question asked in English is what finally breaks the silence and I can hear Tomoko's sharp intake of breath as he considers it.

"I don't even know! It might be interesting to see..." he sounds kind of excited and I grin because that's a win. He tugs me up and drags me out into the yard. "Trees right... And tall..." he hums to himself and I raise one hand up and over my head to peer at the single always leafless and kind of dead looking tree in the center of the garden.

Ominous, there's no movement and everything is still and quiet.

Reminds me of the old Slenderman song.

"Slenderman, Slenderman! All the children try to run!" I begin to sing it almost automatically, kind of surprised that I even remember it as well as I do. "Slenderman, Slenderman! To him it's part of the fun!" I actually laugh somewhat maniacally after that and I can feel Tomoko's shiver from beside me as a cold wind just whips over ahead making the branches sway slightly and tossing our hair around.

Before I can continue singing Tomoko shoves his hand over my mouth and my eyes move to stare at him wide and innocent.

"That's creepy Obito..." he says and I snicker after he removes his hand.

"I know... But also cool right" English, all of it's in English. It's become something of a 'secret twin language' for us. Which is cool actually and I enjoy it, especially because no one really gives us a second guess when we speak in it to one another. It also helps with the connection which has not dulled at all.

If anything it's finally grown strong enough for the dreams that we share to become more vivid and memorable. To allow us to chat face to face kind of. In the same forms that we have in reality. How you see yourself or whatever.

Are we adults(or almost adults) stuffed into kids? Or kids who happen to have the memories of adults in their heads? Who knows. Either way we both view ourselves as the children we appear as currently.

"Yeah... I guess that it is." he offers a strained smile and my own widens before I look back up at the tree. It's so eerie to stand out here. Even eerier when I sing that one song, but occasionally it would feel different. Safe. Like we were finally coming home again. I like to think that the tree rests on some supernatural barrier. I like to believe that the shinigami or some other death god resides in this area watching, waiting and overseeing the land.

I like to imagine that this is what it feels like to stand on the very threshold of death.

"You feel it as well don't you?" I don't even know if the words are truly spoken aloud. I only know that they need to be said. That they're the epitome of all this. The point where it all comes together and just collides. "History, life, death, rebirth... The world watches and it waits... Until it all resets once more!" and I laugh. Loud and wild and kind of insane.

Tomoko joins me until abruptly we both just stop and drop kind of like puppets with their strings cut. I lie breathless and exhilarated on the dirt staring up at the branches above. I almost think that I can see a black cat until Tomoko rolls over and pokes me.

"Hey..." I blink at him and smile. "We should get back to studying the Clan history. Obaachan will be home anytime now."

I know.

I know but in this moment I almost don't want to go back to trying to sort through the mess and the bias that is the Clan history that we're allowed to study. I simply want to keep laying here and simply feeling the world around me.

"Is this ninshu?" I whisper the question closing my eyes as my twin sighs and just gives up for that moment. For the moment while we both simply rest here.

It's enough for now. I don't need anything more really.

I don't need anything more.

Nothing but companionship, security and food. That's all anyone should ever really need isn't it? Isn't it?

I know it's all I would ever truly need if I were honest. Especially if that companionship were my family.

Chapter Text

Chapter Six: Carnivore

It burns it itches and I want to scream as everything in me lances with pain. With pure molten agony that runs through my veins and chakra system. Through every nerve and cell. It's nothing more than a single endless track of pain and torture and the laughter that rings in the background. I want to scream so desperately, to claw at the thing that's creeping over my body and filling it with poison.

To kick and bite, to claw and howl my revenge against it.

But I can't. My will is weakening as the pain engulfs more and more of my being of my sanity. Darkness floats at the edge of my vision and I can just barely make out the people that cared for me. The ones who will mourn me if I do give in.

It gives me determination... Yet it's still not quite enough and I can see and feel as my body moves against my will. Forced to go through with and commit actions that are not my own. As another squirms their way through my consciousness and takes control.

As they laugh in madness and tears and take the world and yank it apart spilling chaos and catastrophe down into the blank abyss beyond.

Space has never been scarier.

I bolt upright screams catching in my throat as I choke on tears and who knows what else. I can hear the rushing and pounding in my ears. Still feel the ooze of the monster as it bled its poison into my bloodstream. Still feel the agony of molten metal carving through my veins.

I scream, loud and shrill choking with sobs and shaking like a leaf caught in the midst of a maelstrom. It hurts, it hurts and I don't know where it came from.

There are eyes on me. Unfriendly dangerous ones. They belong to neither my twin nor my Grandmother and I close my own tightly wanting to bury myself back under my sheets. That's the moment that the door swings open and I'm scooped up. Desperately clutching at the fabric and person holding me.

Seeking comfort and protection from the monster that lurks always just out of view. In the shadows and the darkness of my own psyche.

It's terrifying and I sob burying my face into Grandmother's shoulder. I can feel Tomoko tense and worried hovering in the door. I wonder if they both believe that this is due to the fact that we now have separate rooms. I wonder if they dread this happening again.

I don't even know... But I just want it to go away, the feeling of an itch and agony. Something or someone else controlling my actions. Helplessness, hopelessness. I hate those feelings. Make them go away. So I cry and cling trying desperately to ignore how this must look. An Uchiha even a child is supposed to at least pretend to have control. They're supposed to be strong the best and the most powerful.

Every lesson highlights this fact. Stresses it. Stand this way, back straight proud.

It's so hard though, with nightmares haunting my dreams and even encroaching on my waking hours. Figures seen from the corner of my eye or caught moving just out of view. I truly must seem pathetic really. Following desperately after my seemingly stronger twin always seeking their protection. And really I am, because I can't fight these particular monsters. And they can't fight the ones that they're getting from my past. Figments and shades, old fears never quite put to rest and bad experiences that haunt our every step.

This is our life.

I take a shaky breath. And then another my tears slowing until they stop completely. It still hurts though, just a little less and now I can actually breathe once more. It's a nice feeling really. I don't like not being able to breathe it makes me choke and fear so much more.

I don't want to die. I don't want to die.

Not beneath boulders or anywhere else. Something through my chest a sword or a hand, screaming and choking on my own blood.

I clench a hand and slowly untangle it from the material that I've been bunching up.

"Don't go..." it's a whisper so quiet that I'm not entirely sure that I said it. But they stay and they remain even as light begins to filter in through the window. The night's over. But the nightmare has barely begun. "Please don't go... Don't leave me alone"

I can feel more tears as Grandmother slowly sets me down and Tomoko slides up to snuggle beside me. A brief comfort for when the nightmares come back stronger than ever.

It's like an animal really, tearing at our insides and our sanity. Clawing at the door and trying to get in to eat us up and spit us out. I shiver and I can feel Tomoko's own slight trembles from beside me. Neither of us can really talk about them or put them into words, the sensations that we feel from the memories of lives we once lived. The lives that we never lived and the possibilities that the future opens up.

I watch as Grandmother sighs and slowly exits the room. Probably to make something that will hopefully calm us down. Calm me down more completely anyway.

It's peaceful for a few moments before I whisper in English to my twin. "I'm sorry..." really I am. I don't know what happened to cause whatever situation had been in my dream but... "I can't imagine actually going through that. I don't want to." I shiver again and rub my arms rather cold even with the warmth of my twin right there.

"I should be the one who's sorry." he says with a grimace knowing exactly which dream I've had.

"We both should." I mumble as Grandmother comes back in with a steaming cup of some drink. Hot chocolate most likely... Or mint tea... I don't really care either way. I accept it and sort of curl around it. "You've experienced some of my memories first hand as well after all..." English is such an awesome language to have as a 'secret twin' language.

Nobody ever really even questions it. For that I'm so thankful really. I don't want anybody to question how we have some kind of secondary language that according to Tomoko doesn't even exist in the Western Lands...

But he has heard it before. So that makes me wonder, where could it possibly originate in this world, this universe if he has experienced it before.

"Ne... Tomoko-nii... Where did you hear English before anyway?" I ask the question quietly hands curling around the warm cup of liquid in my hands. I can see him tense and still "Where... It feels important." and really it does. Did he temporarily fall into a version of my world perhaps? Or something else, did someone from my world fall into his for a period of time?

He's so completely silent and then he shakes his head. It's a clear message, either he can't explain or he won't. Going only by his body language it's the latter option. I frown.

"Tomoko-nii!"I whine releasing one hand from the cup to poke at him. "Please..." it's so plaintive that he glares at me and rolls his eyes. "Tomoko-nii. Please, I want to know."

"Obito-chan... Please no." His eyes are closed and the words are so soft but I still pout before reaching out now with both hands. "Obito, I don't even know if I only imagined the encounter."

Well that's ominous and I freeze before even touching him. I freeze because imagination can be powerful enough to conjure up voices and words that are eerily similar to actual languages if you have a vivid enough one. I know that occasionally my 'gibberish' words would be actual real world words when I would day dream in my previous life. Here English is mostly 'gibberish' words occasionally said by some people as a joke.

Case in point the Maito family. Who while I've only briefly seen them in passing, occasionally they'll shout out a 'gibberish' word that makes me snap my head up attention fully on them because it's actually English.

Notably the ever famous Dynamic Entry combo.

"I don't know Tomoko-nii..." I rub my hands on my arms before picking my cup back up and carefully blowing at the steam before taking a small sip. "Imagination can be powerful... But the accuracy?" and isn't that the trick to it. Even if it were imagined then only maybe two or three words would have been accurate to the language I know. The rest wouldn't have been accurate in any context and may have been taken from other languages entirely.

They wouldn't have matched.

"What do you even expect of me?" Tomoko asks it quietly, a tremble in his voice and I shrug. "I mean I barely even saw them... They were..." he pauses and I can see the way he fumbles for a word. "I don't even know... It was something anyway."

"Maybe they had a job that they were late for." it's the first thing that pops into my mind and he snorts. "Hey who knows... That might have been it" I grin and shove at him a little causing some laughter. "But who knows really... Who knows if English is even a thing in this world." If it is then it's certainly not common at all.

Not common at all because neither of us have had anyone recognise the 'twin language' that we're using. No one who's recognised that we both seem to know more than we should. Creating a language is hard after all. I should know, I once attempted to make something just for a story that I was trying to write. I made a few words, but gave up once I realized exactly how hard it is and how weird and flexible some rules of grammar and sentence structure that languages have.

So I'm kind of surprised that no one has even questioned the fact that we seem to have such a well structured language to share with one another that has rules that are fairly clear if you pay attention to what we're saying. What we're sharing with one another.

I curl around the warmth of my drink a bit more before taking another long sip of the liquid. Tomoko leans into my side and we simply rest there. It's peaceful, nothing like our conversation or the nightmares that sparked it.

"Ne... Tomoko-nii... These nightmares are like Carnivores..." I hum around my drink. "All these experiences... They eat away at us trying to consume us."

"Yeah... They kind of do." he agrees absently. "They blend the lines between us..." he adds and I have to agree. Except that we both already really have a stong self identity. A strong sense of who we are, the dreams may blur the line, but they don't blur it so much that we can't tell between our realities and pasts.

It's something small.

Yet it allows us to remember exactly who we are.

Because I was from another world. Another time and another land. Where Tomoko was previously from this world just in the future I come from somewhere completely different. Different experiences and challenges.

Different goals as well. I take a deep breath and finish off the last of my cup. Setting it down I stand up and shake myself off. Another deep breath and I glance at Tomoko who's yawning once more and rubbing at his eyes.

"I'm going to be in the yard practicing stretches..." I mumble quiet and honest.

"Good luck then... 'M going back to bed" I watch him leave before wandering through the house and out into the yard. The tree is still standing there, bare and barren and I take another deep breath in the early morning pre-dawn light. The moments of light just beginning to peak into the day.

I stretch up and then slowly make my way through the stretches mumbling instructions under my breath. It's like yoga. It's a routine and practice will eventually make perfect. Except that you never aim to be perfect, you always strive to be just that little bit better, for just that little bit more.

I can feel the energy in the air around me and I reel my own in and hold it. Take another deep breath and focus on the energy within me. Focus on my chakra as I hold my breath and relax as I release. Feel the ebb and flow until it winds up and rests in a ball within.

My hands fist, thumbs outside the fist resting just beneath my fingers. Clench, unclench and I take another deep breath before simply sitting down beneath the tree and curling up into myself. The wind howls and I can almost hear the answering howl of the Inuzuka ninken if I try to pay attention.

I'm not planning on getting back to sleep.

Not really because there the nightmares wait, golden eyes glinting and watching ready to consume and control me.

I take another deep breath and snap my head up. We still haven't quite started on our katas but I don't care. Half remembered dances and movements come to my mind and I flow. Sway right and left, bending and ducking, making sure that when I fist my hands it's the careful and proper way. Lead with the right leg, balance check everything and also remember to breath properly. It's all so intricate and important. It's a way to relieve the lingering stress of my nightmares. The lingering feeling of helplessness and hopelessness.

The lingering wonder of exactly who was my twin originally.

I can't starve the thoughts off forever but keeping my body moving helps even as the sun finally breaks over and orange glows across the ground. Chasing away the lingering shadows of the night and welcoming with it a new day.

I jump and spin in the air practicing my landings. My shadow stretches out and I pause momentarily just to stare at the blades of grass beneath me glowing orange in the morning light. I take another deep breath and sigh before kind of flopping to rest in the curve at the base of the dead tree.

It's peaceful all things considered and I don't have to worry so much about the beast that lingers from my dreams. From Tomoko's memories.

I close my eyes feeling eyes on me. Eyes on my form and my movements. I've been able to feel them for a while now. Someone watching, someone considering and planning. I don't want to fear, I don't want to be paranoid. But the feeling is always there and it's not something that anyone can ignore.

"Never enough... Who I am is not good enough..." I whisper into the air. "Carnivore, Carnivore could you come and change me. Take away everything I am..." it's a warning really. A feeling hovering in the background even as I abruptly stand and stride back into the house.

I'm not about to just let go and give up after all.

Chapter Text

As our fifth birthday rapidly approaches things get even harder. Training actually seems to begin with katas and more difficult stretches and practices. We're also taught the basics about Kunai and Shuriken yet never allowed to even see them beyond the rubber teething toys we once used.

I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not.

At least we're getting familiar with them I guess. They squeak!

It completely ruins any of the little intimidation we manage to portray when learning to handle them when they squeak as either of us grab them or swing them around. I always laugh and squeeze just that bit more when they do. It's highly entertaining to suddenly hear a squeak from the small rubber toys and I love it.

Tomoko-nii less so. He always glares at them when they squeak and I laugh.

At least we're learning though. And improving a bit I suppose. Aim and coordination and it's fun. Which is not what I was expecting from any of this. I can't imagine being a civilian or a police officer, but I was not expecting to find training to be a shinobi fun.

It might be the values of this new world sinking in, it might not. All I know is that I'm having fun learning to toss weapons around and potentially kill people.

I hope that I don't lose all my compassion really. Even if it's only training that knowledge sobers me up a bit and I shift my stance and grip. The rubber toy in my hands squeaks and my eyes narrow.

Beside me Tomoko is handling the toy shuriken, much more comfortable with them in his hands rather than the kunai. To be fair though, in my hands neither weapon really feels quite right. Even if they're only rubber toys, they feel weird and wrong in my grip.

I can use them and throw them but I don't like using them.

It feels awkward.

As though they're just not quite my weapon.

It makes learning just a touch harder and more awkward than it should be. Even aside from the squeaking they make and my random bouts of full on laughter at the squeaking. Even aside from my lingering feelings of unease and that this is wrong. Because these weapons are not quite the ones I feel that I should be using.

Give me a sharpened shovel any day, or even just a metal pole and I will swing them around easily enough. A fry pan or some other improvised weapon and I'm good... Actual weapons though even if they're only toys...

Not so much.

Something about me just doesn't work with them. It's not that I can't use them, especially right now while we're only working on learning... It's just.

"Another miss Obito-chan." I glare at the distantly painted target that our Grandmother set up and then half-heartedly at my twin. Finally I toss a dirty look down at the toy kunai... About a meter rulers distance away from me, barely a couple of footsteps really. "You need to throw them like you mean it."

"That's the problem Tomoko-kun, I am!" I whine throwing my arms up into the air in annoyance and exasperation. This happens every single time that I try to use those stupid things. I can't throw for beans. It's absolutely ridiculous.

Like attempting to skip rocks really.

Also incredibly frustrating and I kick at the ground furiously. Tomoko rolls his eyes, I don't even have to look to feel that. Absently he tosses his own squeaky toy and it bounces off the target.

I glare at it as if it's personally offended me.

Juvenile maybe but I'll admit that it makes me feel just a touch better about my own lack of skills. About the fact that I can't even hit a target barely a few meters in front of me. Not really that far at all.

It's just frustrating to keep trying, and trying, and trying and just not getting anywhere. Meanwhile Tomoko-nii is improving by leaps and bounds. Not all of it could possibly be attributed to his previous life in this world and that's what frustrates and infuriates me. He's got natural talent at this. While I've got nothing more than luck and pure will.

So I practive, trying again and again picking up the toys and tossing them repeatedly at the target. They always, always fall short. I just can't quite muster up the ability to even land a single hit.

I can do the stretches, and the first of the few katas that we've finally been introduced to. I can do the physical and mental stuff... And then there's this.

I fist my hands and grit my teeth fury flashing in my eyes before I spin on my heel and storm back into the house. Tomoko doesn't bother to follow me, he's much happier simply continuing to practice. I stamp back to my room and then curl up in the corner pulling my legs up and hugging them to myself. I just don't understand why I can't handle the weapons properly. I can't understand why I can hold and grip them properly but then trying to throw them I just can't. No aim and no direction with no power behind it.

I bury my head a bit and mutter curses under my breath. It's so frustrating, baffling and disheartening. A shinobi requires more than hand to hand skills after all. Ninjutsu and Genjutsu may be part of it as well but you can't rely on fancy tricks and techniques. You need to be able to throw stuff.

Sure I can throw rocks and hit the target, but how's that supposed to help when I need to hurt and hinder others? How's it supposed to help when I wind up on an actual battlefield?

I hear the door open and don't bother to raise my head to meet Grandmother's expression. I can't be bothered at all. Even when she sits down beside me and gently, ever so gently pulls me into a side hug.

"Don't worry about it Obito-chan. You'll improve. You won't always miss. And soon you'll catch up to your sister."

"Brother..." I automatically correct her, just like every other time. Even if it'll do nothing more than cause a momentary pause. She'll never remember, she doesn't try to understand.

"You'll catch up to your brother then..." it's said with a laugh and I roll my eyes before pressing myself just a touch more into Grandmother's side and breathe deeply just to remind myself of her specific scent. It's a comfort really. "You certainly can't give up now. Where did your determination go?"

"It's on vacation" I say with a hidden grin and she shakes her head. "I know... I know... But sometimes I feel as though all we're doing is training. There's no play between the nightmares and learning to be shinobi... To be strong so we can defend others." And that's what bugs me the most really. Between our training and growing up, the nightmares and disasters that have plagued our second childhoods, there's been no chance for us to really be children since we were three and a half.

"Really?" it's soft and I can feel Tomoko's presence as he comes in from his training, from his practice.

"Yeah..." I say it so softly and then sigh. "I just kind of want a break you know... Some time to relax." even if it won't truly be relaxing because I just know we'll find some way to get ourselves into trouble.

It's probably an Uchiha thing really. I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment before breathing out in a long and kind of lonely sigh. Everything is silent for a long moment. Right up until Tomoko pushes my door open once more and peers in with such a wide eyed expression that I just know has been practiced.

Not that it helps as he walks in hands clasped behind his back. I know the look well, he's planning something.

Whether or not I'll enjoy it has yet to be seen though.

"Obito-chan's right. We have been all work no play recently. Too drained from our nightmares."

"Night terrors really..." I mumble cutting in briefly and ignoring the dirty look that he sends me for the interruption.

"So maybe we should have a day off... Head to the park or something..." he trails off and I can feel our Grandmother considering the suggestion. Can feel it as she thinks and debates whether or not it would be safe enough for us. And that's the real question isn't it? We're all that she has left really aren't we?

Our parents are both dead, and then there's us. I'm not even sure how well we appear to anyone either. Constantly plagued by night terrors and I have occasional panic attacks for no real reasons... Well aside from social anxiety and who knows what lingering feelings from my past life. Also chakra abundance and exposure because my mind will occasionally reject it if I'm not careful and forget that it's safe... Which leads to itching and general discomfort.

"I don't see why not." It's a relief to hear that and I actually perk up a bit in Grandmother's arms before grinning up at her. I actually do want to spend some time outside the clan compound after all, interacting with the rest of the world if possible and learning exactly what Konohagakure's actually like for myself.

Even if it'll be incredibly limited it'll be something right?

Right?

Something in me twists and I abruptly close my eyes feeling a headache build. It's not so much painful as it is annoying. A dull throb and sensation that tells me that I'm thinking too far into something again.

My hands moving to clutch at my head worries my Grandmother and twin though and I can feel them both panic slightly as I wince and whimper. It's not much but it's enough and I can feel my Grandmother shift her grip so that I can rest a little bit easier against her and that my head would have a touch more support.

So that it wouldn't hurt as much.

It doesn't really help and I can feel tears gather at the edge of my eyes. Soggy and painful. Stinging as they roll out and over my cheeks. It's not that painful really but the stronger that the throb grows the more tears slowly fall until it's a steady stream and Grandmother's rocking me gently humming a tune that's supposed to calm me.

It doesn't help.

I can feel a tightening in my chest and eyes unseen watching us. Something at the very edge of my senses stirs and I can almost feel that strange goopy tar clinging to my body and dragging me down into darkness.

I shiver and my hands fist the material of Grandmother's top even as Tomoko joins us trying to help me. It's not helping because I can still feel the eyes watching. I can still feel the wrong and yucky person and it comes out in a whisper.

"Who are you... Why are you watching us?" all in English, but still very understandable even if it's only by my twin. His head snaps up and he moves to stare out the window. He won't see anyone or anything, no the eldrich creature is more careful than that... But he knows that it's always important to trust your instincts and he'll know. He'll be aware that there's something watching and observing us.

So will our Grandmother and she seems to know, she seems to understand just the barest of what I said. I can feel her tense and stretch out her own chakra sense. I can feel her wariness as she's able to tell that there's something just slightly off about the area around our home. Around us.

She's wary and guarded.

Protective as well and I take a deep breath. Then another before slowly pulling away and wiping at the tears that still linger at my cheeks.

"Don't worry Obito-chan!" I hear Tomoko's voice but he still sounds nervous. It's trying to be positive though so I suppose that counts for something. "There's no one here. No danger we're perfectly safe." the for now goes unspoken but is still heard. I blink and sniff before nodding my head.

It's all quiet for a few more moments as we all just kind of sit there before I shakily get to my feet and take a deep breath.

"Maybe we should get back to practice... Ne Tomoko-nii?" he nods his head and Grandmother follows us out. Keeping a careful and close eye on us as we both proceed to continue to practice with the rubber weapons.

Eventually though we both just give up on those and instead face off against one another with the plans to spar, or at least practice some of our katas. Which for me tends to include movements that match dances from my previous life really. Along with some of the movements remembered from shows such as Avatar the last Airbender and the Marvel movies and shows... A bit of stuff from Phineas and Ferb as well.

It makes for an interesting combination of stances and movements. Trying to figure out if I could work in some breakdancing at some point in the future also takes up my thoughts as we proceed under the careful watch of Grandmother... And whoever our hidden observer is.

It's peaceful really and for those moments I think that I can relax and enjoy myself blocking and working with my twin as we practice getting ready for the future.

Except that it can't last and somewhere in the middle I suddenly freeze a shiver racing up and down my spine. The sense of doom and agony that arches its way through me before I jump and spin to face the bush sitting behind me.

Gold glitters and I swear that I can see sharp teeth.

"Who are you?" I hiss the question as they disappear and my twin moves to stand beside me and glare at the bush along with me. It's already gone though, no longer there to even feel our glares let alone to see.

Yet Tomoko seems to know exactly who, or what was there anyway.

"Kuro!" he hisses under his breath fists clenching tightly by his sides. I giver him a side glance because Kuro means black doesn't it? So why's he saying it as if it were a name, then again I remember a character in a short story by that name. Can't really recall the story or the events surrounding it though.

It seems rather ominous and I shiver hugging my arms to myself.

"Maybe that's enough training for the day..." I whisper tugging at Tomoko's arm. He barely glances at me before nodding his head.

"Yeah... That's enough for today." he agrees and turns to the house. I pause for a moment still feeling eyes before following.

I get the feeling that darkness is looming in wait for the future.

Chapter Text

Days stretch out and the next thing that we know we're finally standing in front of the Academy about to truly start on the path towards becoming shinobi. Also we're not late, which feels wrong somehow as we make our way into the building to find our classroom. It's quiet as we walk despite all the children clambering around.

I'm not sure whether I should be horrified by that or not.

It's eerie really and I stick very closely to Tomoko as he walks through the halls. There's also the fact that everyone sort of parts for us just because we happen to be Uchiha. Just because we happen to belong to that clan. It makes me feel like an outsider once more. Like the kid who used to wander around and talk to the air just to fend off loneliness...

Who once began to believe that one of their friends was just a figment of their imagination because they couldn't believe that anyone would actually want to be friends with them.

Who even now is terrified of being an outsider all alone.

I mean sure I have Tomoko, but he's my brother. While family is all and go you actually do need some friends just to be able to function properly. Siblings fight, they argue and have contrast that is extremely tested by their constant proximity to one another in the home that they share. They don't ever get the chance to have some distance between them. And in our case there's also the issue that we're both reincarnations. Both much older than we appear.

Even if it's not much, even if it might be the other way around. Are we adults in children's bodies... Or children who happen to remember another life once lived?

Either way... I already dread being an outsider again just because of something that I can't control. Just because of the family that I was born into.

We reach the classroom and I move to push open the door. Beyond is of course the classroom, just beginning to fill with children. The sensei is also there, looking rather stressed and run down already. When the day hasn't even begun yet.

I almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost, because looking into the room gives me a huge sense of nope. I want to turn right back around and walk away because it looks and feels like a classroom. And not even a decently set up one either but one of those this is a first time teaching teacher's classroom.

I kind of just want to leave so that I won't be around to witness the class eat the teacher. Well practically. I'm halfway to turning around when Tomoko grabs me by the arm and drags me in with him up to the back. I whimper but sit down anyway and just kind of watch the chaos unfold around us as the teacher tries and constantly fails to calm down the class. Really children are like sharks, we can smell the blood in the water practically and we zero in on it.

If I had a pencil or a ruler I likely would have thrown it at the man just to see how he's react. Instead all I have is a wad of paper... And my chakra.

An interesting thing about projectiles and chakra. If you charge anything, absolutely anything with chakra it becomes quite painful to get hit by. A wadded up ball of paper is no different and my aim is rather good when it comes to improvised weapons.

I grin as the paper missile flies true and strikes sensei right in the back of the head. His yelp even makes Tomoko snicker one hand covering his mouth. This actually might be fun. Even if it's just basically going back to school. Introductions follow and really the first few classes for the day are so menial and boring that I kind of just zone out because I already know the basic theory and mathematics that the man is trying to teach us.

It's probably only the civilian kids who don't know this stuff... And even that might be a stretch considering the little that I know about this world.

Just as I'm debating whether or not I could possibly get away with another thrown projectile we're let out. Instantly I split off and away from Tomoko. It's not that I don't enjoy spending time with him, but now is a chance to actually meet some other children who aren't Uchiha. Interact with some people who are actually outside of the clan.

The first few attempts go about as well as that time I fell off the trampoline and landed right on a branch or something on the ground. Which is to say incredibly poorly. No one really seems to pay attention to me. Either they're intimidated, or they seem to look down on me and think that I'm not worth their time and attention.

Eventually I just sort of give up and settle at the base of a tree and watch everyone. It's disheartening really. I cross my arms over the top of my knees and stare out mournfully watching the other kids play games such as ninja and some game with a ball. I sigh and press my head down just that little bit more feeling as lonely and alienated as I ever was in my previous life.

So it's entirely a surprise when I feel someone settle to stand sort of beside me. I look up fringe flopping a bit to cover my eyes. The first thing that I see is a scarf hiding the lower half of the boy's face. The second thing to catch my attention is dark eyes and distinct silver hair. Hair that triggers some sense of familiarity in my mind. I know that hair.

I know that face as well. My brow furrows and my nose scrunches up a bit as I struggle to place a name to face. Nothing comes to my mind though so eventually I stumble over my words.

"D-Do I know you?" and it comes out in English. Because clearly that's exactly the kind of embarrassment I need in this moment. I can feel the flush that spreads over my cheeks as I try once more to ask the same question. "Do I know you? 'Cause you seem really familiar"

"I don't think so." he says and somehow manages to make it sound incredibly snobbish. I frown behind my arms and look up at him from my position on the ground.

"Oh..." I sort of pause before deciding why not and asking "Hey... Could we try to be friends?" Probably not the best way to ask that question, but I really do want at least one friend. I can see my twin from the corner of my eye. He's sitting and talking to a brown haired girl with familiar purple rectangular markings on her cheeks. A member of the Nohara clan it would seem.

The boy in front of me seems taken aback by that. As though he hadn't expected me to ask such a thing.

"I mean, we don't have to be... I mean... We could try the whole rivalry thing if that's what you're looking for..." I stumble over that offer as well, trailing off into English about half way through incredibly nervous before I kind of leap to my feet and babble some nonsense excuse and flee.

It's incredibly embarrassing as I find myself hiding up in a tree and curling into myself. I don't even know exactly how I ended up in the tree. I just know that somehow it's safer than hanging around being awkward. And getting a huge headache from the boy.

He's supposed to have a mask. He's supposed to have a mask... It keeps ringing in my head insistent and I hiss clutching at the sides of my head and struggling a bit to keep my breathing under control. I am not going to freak out over phantom memories and dreams. They can't hurt me.

We're called back in and I trail in last... A few minutes late which gets me a scolding and annoyed look from my twin and the teacher.

I also end up being forced to sit beside the silver haired boy... Who's saved me a seat. I don't know how to react to that and I just awkwardly stare at him before continuing to struggle to focus on the work in front of me. The words keep running away a bit and I narrow my eyes in annoyance glaring at the paper trying to pin point my annoyance.

To pin point my pain.

Just being close to this boy is a distraction. He's so familiar it gives me a headache and eats away at me curling in that one familiar way in the pit of my stomach. Finally the day is over and we're let out but before I can just leap away the boy speaks once more.

"My name's Hatake Kakashi!" he tilts his head in expectation.

"Uchiha Obito" I pause and then tack on awkwardly "I guess this means we're ac-quain-tan-ces now... Or friends..." I shuffle a bit "I really don't know how this works." he smiles at me with his eyes before running off. "Well that wasn't weird at all..." I mutter to myself in English one hand moving to rub at the back of my head as pure bewilderment settles in. And then the boy's name catches up with me and I feel entirely thrown off. "Hatake Kakashi... As in... Oh dear, Oh dear... That's the name of the sensei right?" I may not have entirely recognized their names...

Not on my own at least but reminders can come in any form really. So I continue to stand there stunned completely silent right up until my twin just casually strolls up with his companion in tow and pokes me to try and pull me out of my daze.

It works, albeit not quite how he expected since I take a swing at him and then glare.

I'm still kind of reeling because Hatake Kakashi had to be the one person who I somehow managed to maybe possibly befriend... I'm not even sure if that was befriending the boy or what. So I just kind of stand around trying to figure out how I'm supposed to feel about the entire thing. And annoying my twin a bit.

"Obito!" I jump and stare at my twin. He does not look impressed at all, one eye narrowed and his mouth pressed into a weird half frown, half flat line. It looks weird and I kind of snort seeing it and recalling the times that I would make that kind of face.

"Heh... Sorry Tomoko-nii." I rub at the back of my head eyes closed and smiling before I peer at the Nohara kid behind him. "Who's your friend?" it's not exactly a polite way of asking even as I offer up one of my best sheepish smiles to the girl who actually laughs a bit covering her mouth. He sighs and raises a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"I'm Nohara Rin..." that name's also familiar and I shake her hand kind of distractedly trying to place where I'd heard it before...

One of the special episodes that had played on the television once maybe?

It makes me feel kind of nervous really. Thrown off like I had been when Kakashi had told me his name. There's a niggling feeling of danger and wrong and something bad is coming. It's making my head spin, sending me for another loop because both of those names... Kakashi, and Rin they're familiar... Echoing with something half remembered from cartoons that I had barely watched.

Even my own name if I spend too much time dwelling on it gives me a sense of familiarity... And nightmares of boulders crashing down... But I don't dwell on it.

I shiver almost unconsciously and rub my hands up and down my arms a chill spreading across my body.

"Ne... Niisan, I'm going to head home 'kay" I say slipping automatically into English as my nerves fray and twist. Before he can even respond I disappear allowing my chakra for once to flow completely freely as I focus on speed and getting home and somewhere where I can have a bit of a meltdown without attracting the attention of absolutely everyone around.

Because those names are familiar.

In a way that rings bells and alarms and makes me want to sit up and pay attention to the memories that it's trying to draw right to the forefront of my mind.

It all moves so fast and I'm in my room before I can really register that I'm home. Moving still quickly I find the closet that I still manage to fit into and curl up pulling myself into a ball. Those names ring around in my head...

Team... Team...

Kakashi, Rin and Obito... Team something.

It hurts and I can feel the sting of tears biting at the edges of my eyes. Feel the pain in my chest and my body refuses to breath. Old problems from my previous life that translated to panicked breakdowns in this one. Instead of constant pain and issues that vary in strength from day to day I go throughout my daily routine with no pain at all, which conversely makes me more worried about myself. I'm used to a constant pain, so to not have it always there gives me other issues and paranoia to deal with.

Which is what leads to these breakdowns and anxiety or panic attacks. To the nightmares and feelings of paranoia throughout the day.

I suck desperately at the air and my hands move to cover my ears and clutch at my head. I don't know why the though of that being my possible future team makes me panic. I don't know why that screams danger like a fire alarm.

I don't know why... I kind of wish that I had paid more attention to the anime and manga in my previous life. So that I didn't only have these flashes and moments of pure instinctive reaction to clue me in on something being just slightly off or wrong with the situations that I found myself in.

I whimper and struggle to breath, struggle to hold onto my senses and not completely fall into a full on panic attack. That would likely be a quick way to just be seen as worthless and helpless weak and an easy target. Also it would likely have Grandmother asking me again whether I'm sure that I really want to be a shinobi. Tears trail over my cheeks and I grit my teeth against the pain struggling to suck in just a bit more air. It's not as simple as just stop and forcing myself to breath until it hurts like a knife anymore...

It's not as simple as making my lungs fully expand to remind my body that they can. Not when I can't quite catch my breath. The buzz of my chakra only faintly helps and I feel that warmth and try to make it flow. Flow correctly rather than stop and start as though it's blocked from moving throughout my body.

As though my system is rebelling.

I hear footsteps light and faint in my room and try just a touch harder to calm myself down. I suck in another breath and struggle to keep it down. To not feel as though I'm being crushed or flattened. To not feel the pressure feeling. There's nothing on me, I can breath. I can breath.

"Obito-chan?" It's Grandmother. I falter a bit in my breath before managing to whimper out my response. I don't really want to ignore her.

"R-right here Obaachan!" It's barely a whisper and seriously she has to have good hearing. She has to because she quickly opens up my hiding place and gently pulls me out. Gently holds me as I continue to focus primarily on my breathing and not falling back into the danger, danger there's something dangerous coming this way.

I curl into her lap and press my head into her chest just seeking out the familiar pulse of a heartbeat. To match timing with kind of. It's comforting and familiar and I can feel my hands slowly unclench and slacken their grip.

I can feel as the pain ebbs away and the air rushes in before drifting back out at a more moderate pace. No longer hasty and panicked. No longer painful and burning because it's not working. I breath a lot easier and almost sigh as I relax into Grandmother's embrace. It's a relief and it lets me know that I'm safe. I'm safe and loved and cared for and there's no way that anyone can hurt me here.

Even as old as she is her power is nothing to sneeze at. Seriously shinobi are wickedly powerful and awesome and I recall an old warning about the elderly.

Fear your elders, especially the ones who weren't there just moments ago. They know things that you don't.

Experience tends to triumph over raw power more often than not after all. I hear the door and raise my head just a touch in response to the steps that follow. My twin soon appears in the door and he peers around nervously, unsure of his standing in this situation. I can't really say that I blame him considering the way I had just kind of disappeared on him earlier.

I weakly raise an arm in response and wave at him.

"Welcome home niisan." I'm admittedly glad that our Grandmother has stopped commenting on my usage of that term around him. Even if we're still expected to at least appear to follow the traditional gender roles that we appear to be. Which means that she mostly refers to us both as chan or kun, since at this stage does it really matter?

Others though, others tend to wrinkle their noses at the way that we work. Seems like across time and space and dimensions some things just don't get accepted that easily. Gender and identity and how gender roles play a part in those are most of them.

Tomoko shifts on his feet in the door and rubs the back of his head awkwardly. I huff and slump a bit before moving and stretching out just barely able to reach him to drag him into the hug pile. Which he yelps in reaction to.

"No escaping the family bonding niisan!" I grin hugging him and leaning into Grandmother's side. My words are only slightly muffled and I can hear him laughing once he's gotten over the shock of being dragged in.

"Yeah same to you I guess!" he smirks at me before sighing and simply settling down to relax and bask in the love that we're sharing.

It's a nice atmosphere really and I begin to hum an absent tune that I can't quite remember where I heard it. The tune could be something from my previous world, but it could just as easily be something from this world. After a short while though Tomoko joins in and I can hear Grandmother singing soft and gentle words to go along with the tune.

It's nice really and I close my eyes snuggling down in the warmth and peace comforted by the thought that no matter what happens I'll likely always have my family right by my side.

Whether or not I have friends, whether or not danger is actually coming it doesn't matter.

I'll just figure things out as we go along really. Roll with the punches and flow with the river really.

Chapter Text

The problem with the Shinobi Academy is that first and foremost it's a school. Everyone knows what the problem with school is, and here it's not different. Despite the content matter that we're learning and despite the fact that this is apparently needed for the future... It's still school, it's boring and menial and half the time I find myself absently tapping a rhythm on the desk in front of me to keep myself awake just to soak up whatever the man at the front of the room is telling us.

More often than not Kakashi also picks to simply sit by me. Whether that's an indication of friendship or not is still confusing because we don't really interact.

At least not proper interaction. Not really. We kind of just hand around together watching everyone else or simply being there. Typically though Kakashi will grow bored of standing around and when he does his first thought is training. Which is incredible to watch, attempting to join him though usually ends with me glaring at the still worthless throws that I can make. Kakashi, doesn't comment on them anymore. Not after he tried to help me the first time and that somehow made my aim worse...

At least I still mostly practice with rubber.

But still, school. Boring typically even if I used to enjoy it in my previous life. My attention span has never really been the best when it's come to stuff that just doesn't interest me though. Which basically translates to most of the theory lessons going well over my head as I instead tune them out and focus on other more irrelevant things. Such as my hands and the beat that I tap out onto the desk, such as the feel of Kakashi's chakra curling through his body in that one particular way that says annoyance even if he shows only the faintest visible reaction.

Also, my twin.

I don't even have to look at him sitting up in the back of the classroom to know that he's glaring death in Kakashi's direction. They just don't get along, at all.

It's entertaining really. Because it's not like he has much of a choice about who I decide to simply idle around after all. Nor where Kakashi chooses to sit. If he could I'm sure that he would though. He's so overprotective really.

And I love it.

Mainly because at this stage it means I only need to watch and chaos will unfold on it's own. Also less anxiety and panic attacks because I'm too busy being amused by the interactions of the people around me.

Kakashi and Tomoko butt heads routinely and it's usually left to Rin to calm them both down. Since I don't really do anything but kind of egg them on. I can't really help it, because it gets us all interacting our whole group.

And it even draws a few others to our group. Such as Sarutobi Asuma the Hokage's son and Yuhi Kurenai. Also Maito Gai... Who I don't think is even quite in the Academy yet... It makes things at least somewhat interesting I suppose. So I simply continue to sit through the theory lessons waiting for things to get interesting. Today's the first day that we're going to be doing taijutsu as well.

Which means sitting through this first boring lesson something about chakra and chakra exhaustion. Which again is really civilian grade. There's so much theory that we go through that it's ridiculous. Most of it also tends to repeat as though our Sensei just doesn't know the first thing about what he's doing. Which I actually wouldn't be surprised about considering he's already repeated the same sentence at least twice in the one go and then restarted his whole lecture.

Which for people like me is kind of the point where everything starts to slide towards the is it over yet side of things. Also there's something else I should really point out, we have paper, ink and brushes to take notes with. For most of the other kids this means stuff like screwing the paper up into balls to play with or otherwise folding it into planes. For Kakashi it is exactly what it would be on the tin; taking notes. For me though.

I'm not allowed near ink and other calligraphy supplies at home unsupervised. Here though with the boring prattle and all the supplies at hand. As quickly as I'm sliding towards boredom my hand twitches to the brush and ink and soon I'm scrawling out words and lines and twisting it into patterns that just seem to work in my head.

Which of course leads right into trouble. The first indication that anything is even slightly awry is Kakashi yelping and moving as far as he can away from me. Disappearing completely from the room. It sets off something of a chain reaction as the Sensei panics before getting everyone out and dragging me out by the collar of my shirt.

That's when it explodes. Literally the room just as everyone is outside and apparently out of danger goes up in fire and smoke billows out before air's sucked right back in to fill the now empty space.

The rest of the Academy and surrounding buildings seem mostly intact at least although there's a whole bunch of Chunin and Jonin that are now just there. Also civilians peering curiously at the chaos as they pass.

All I can really think of to say in reaction though is actually typical for a five year old kid.

"COOL!" My hands come together into a clap and I grin my eyes practically sparkling in glee. Because seriously who doesn't enjoy seeing explosions. "Can I do it again?" I'm speaking in English but that's mainly because I'm so excited. Tomoko frowns and moves over to my side before whacking me (relatively gently of course) over the back of my head and hissing.

"No you idiot! Explosions are bad!" his expression is sour for a moment before something seems to occur to him. "Hey wait... Does this mean that school is over? That means... No Kunoichi Class!" I blink and look at him curiously before remembering the 'optional' Kunoichi Classes for girls and scowling.

"And why can't I join those classes?" I am not jealous... Just a bit annoyed. Because seriously as far as I care that's discrimination and enforcing Gender Roles. "I mean seriously, it's not like it's the Shinobi version of the Talk now is it... Is it?" I actually have to wonder about that a bit because really I don't have any idea what the Kunoichi classes actually are beyond specialized classes for girls.

Kakashi decides to interrupt at that point tapping me on the shoulder and then crossing his arms over his chest with such a perfect unimpressed look. I blink at him the very personification of the what question that he frowns before pointing back at our still smoking classroom. Also the confused shinobi mulling around it, looking at it though makes me pause and think of something else important to wonder here.

"How come the explosion only affected the inside of the classroom?" A hand moves to my chin and a single finger taps as I question the wonder. "Nothing outside of the classroom or surrounding it was even faintly scorched... Hey Tomoko-nii do you have an answer to that one... It didn't even blow out the roof!"

Kakashi's facepalm beside me is glorious, but I don't pay it the largest amount of attention because this puzzle is important to think about. Tomoko sighs and also looks at the building confusion covering his face as he let's out the ever so elegant

"Huh? How the hell does that work?" A hand moves through his hair reflecting his confusion as Rin begins to giggle on his other side. Kakashi's by me and Rin by him... Reflecting our usual dynamic really.

"Strange... This is incredibly-"

"OBITO!" I jump a bit and spin around to see our Grandmother right there... And she looks furious. My expression immediately turns sheepish and kind of terrified. There's no where that I can just disappear to.

I wonder if I should start considering a will?

"Nice knowing you Otouto... Imouto..." Tomoko trails off before attempting to sneak away.

"TOMOKO! You're in trouble for this as well." he freezes and looks over to our Grandmother with a look that clearly read exactly how unhappy he was to hear that. "It's your job to make sure that certain rules are kept when the adults aren't able to!" she's scolding him... In front of the whole school. In front of the Academy and a number of Chunin, Jonin and some Genin who're milling around. We're never going to live this down. "And as for you-"

"I know. I know." I cut her off and dutifully repeat that one rule that's been drilled into my head over and over and over again simply because I keep 'forgetting' it. "Don't write patterns without someone watching." I pause and then look over at the still smoking remains of our classroom. "But that's never happened before..."

"Obito!" she sounds worn down and I flinch as she raises a hand to pinch at her brow and mutter lowly, too low for me or Tomoko to catch. She takes a deep breath looks at both of us before huffing it out in a long sigh. "Maybe it's time I got you a proper tutor for such things then... Before you have a worse accident." she eyes the classroom meaningfully and I give an awkward shuffle and laugh.

It's actually a fairer punishment than I expected really. Although there's a certain way that Grandmother's standing that says that's not the end of it. Not even close really and I find myself holding my breath as she looks around soon finding our sensei and storming over to him...

My eyes widen in horror and I kind of inch behind Kakashi because no... No, it's one thing for her to scold us because we knew the rules that we'd been given but our sensei. Please let the ground open up and swallow me.

Please, no, no... I can't. I can't deal with this. Kakashi barely reacts as I begin to whimper and crouch down behind him. As I begin to hide myself from view because really. I can deal with being embarrassed in front of everyone, I can deal with being scolded in front of a crowd it's not like that never happened to me in either life before. The thing that I can't deal with though is my guardian then turning around and in front of everyone dressing down the teacher, even if they do deserve it. It just feels so much like an attention grab.

Or, or something I don't know. It just makes me feel so uncomfortable.

"You're responsible for this as well!" her voice carries incredibly well and it's amazing really that everyone is so quiet. It's as though the whole world is waiting to see how she's going to tear into our sensei. "You should have known to keep a close eye on everyone after all. Can't expect a bunch of five year olds to just behave. Also I did warn the Academy about exactly what the twins weren't to touch-" she's off and gaining steam as well. With every word though I sink further and further behind Kakashi while Tomoko gets redder and redder beginning to feel the embarrassment as well until he pulls up the collar of his dress and hides behind it.

The only reason he's even wearing a dress is because I absently mentioned that even if he doesn't like it... He should at least wear one so that if the need arises he'll be able to actually fight in one without being hindered by it. That barely helped but it clearly succeeded since here he is in the dress.

That's really all that matters when it comes down to it.

Of course I don't hide behind the collar of my shirt. All that would do would be cause additional embarrassment. Instead I tug my goggles down from their perch and allow my fringe to fall over my face. I can feel the heat in my cheeks. I can feel the twist of embarrassment and the sort of odd feeling of laughter that bubbles through me.

I always want to laugh in embarrassing situations. Don't know why but I do, and I let out a kind of strangled half laugh. Half sob which is weird and kind of sends my emotions right into a back spin. From embarrassment to choking on tears in a handful of seconds. My throat tightening in that familiar way that reminds me of how mixed I am with my emotions and feelings especially when it comes to family.

It's a tightening that heralds mixed sadness with happiness and love. Yeah, I'm something of a sap really. I can feel them as they begin to squeeze out of my eyes and I can hear Kakashi's awkward shuffling. I can also hear Tomoko's sigh and feel as he moves to my side and begins to rub circles on my back.

I hiccup awkwardly before another half laugh, half sob comes out and I whisper.

"It feels so nice to be cared for..." and it really does. It makes me feel so warm and, and... I whimper and push my goggles up wiping at my eyes with my sleeves. "It makes me remember... Remember my family..." I close my eyes and sink down remembering warm hugs and nagging my brother to clean up after himself because it can't be that hard. It makes me long for a life that I can't return to.

Tomoko sinks down beside me and awkwardly side hugs me even as our Grandmother finishes scolding the sensei and realizes that we're both kind of having breakdowns. Although Tomoko is hiding his much better than I'm hiding mine. But I know emotions are important to share. I remember that someone said that tears allow you to refresh yourself and prepare for happiness. To feel better.

I look up as Grandmother approaches face flushed and still warm tears still faintly welling up at the edges of my eyes. I reach up to her and sniffle.

"Obaachan..." It's quiet barely above a whisper but she sighs and gently lifts me. Tomoko simply moves to her side while I bury my head into her shoulder and continue to sniffle. At least this isn't a panic attack. "I miss them..." it's so soft, so quiet yet Tomoko is definitely able to hear my words. Understand them and the implications.

Five years, but time doesn't heal wounds. Not really it lessons the blow and the impact but it never truly heals them. Not in this context. Mourning may become easier with time, but with my state of emotions five years is not enough. Not even close.

I can distract myself. I can pretend that I don't miss them. Except pretending and keeping busy will only ever go so far. At the end of the day it only takes one event, one reminder and...

"I want to see them again..." tears dribble down and soak on Grandmother's shoulder as she continues to carry me home. "I want to hug my brother, tell him that I love him. I want to snuggle with my mother... I want... I want to see the twins, to listen to Freedom's tall tales, to see my nieces... To, to be home..." this is home, but there is home as well.

Love and family and people who care for us.

Would they accept Tomoko? I don't even know but I miss them so much and it aches and tears. My hand clenches and I can feel it twist the fabric in it. I can feel myself shaking as my emotions rise, breathing tightens and I sniff emotions swirling. Sadness and happiness with a longing for the life that I can't go back to.

The life that I can never get back. I don't even know. I don't even know whether I'm truly real. Remembering my family, my original one reminds me of my own rebirth. The moments before in the darkness and before that seeing myself continue to live and write even as I was being yanked away and into a new life. Maybe it's all some sick joke and this is all some story that's being written my a different version of myself. Who knows, reality is weird. Stories are weird and anything is possible if you refuse to admit that it's impossible.

I laugh. It's choked and kind of crazed but it's still a laugh. Still a sound that's recognizable as a happy sound. Except that laughter isn't always happy and this one is definitely more hysterical.

Verging into panicked really. I can feel as Grandmother shifts and adjusts her hold on me. Even as my body starts to shift into it's own small panic mode. Breathing hastens and I can feel hands around my throat even though I know nothing's there. Tightening and a sharp, so incredibly sharp pain in the side of my body. Not the chest this time, throat and side.

Still pretty bad though because all pain is. Sharp and jagged as though it were being twisted and I whimper hands clenching even further. I don't know whether we're even home yet. But I can feel as Grandmother sits down holding me calmly and simply allowing me to cling. Tears trail as well as the pain ebbs away instead being replaced with a hollow and empty feeling. A feeling of absolute blankness. Nothing and yet everything.

I feel cold.

Not shiver and covered in snow cold but rather the emotionally distant shut everything down kind of cold. The kind where I know that there's something wrong but I just can't make myself feel anything at all anymore. It's the point where I've gone into robot mode really. Sitting limply in Grandmother's grip and just staying there silent and blank. It would be scary if I'd never experienced it before. And if I bothered to feel any emotion about my blank state. Face going straight and my head resting as I simply breathed not caring enough to feel anything.

I close my eyes and don't even respond as Tomoko reaches out and pokes me. I don't even flinch as he calls my name over and over again trying to get me to react. Absently I realize that this is probably the first time that anyone across either of my lives have seen me in this state.

Completely blank and shut down. No one's seen me fall into this before.

Except the dogs. And it's not like they could tell anyone. After all they weren't able to talk in my previous life. Unlike some of the animals in this one. I know distantly that this state is probably unhealthy but I just can't bring myself to care at all. I don't want to be overwhelmed by my emotions right now.

So I switched them off.

Which kind of switches the rest of me off. Since I'm not responding to anything at all. No outside stimuli and barely any of the inside stimuli either. I'm just sitting and resting in a blank state. Staring at nothing in the air. I can't even really see anything, it's like watching a static television where you stare at the static and can maybe just see the images of whatever old show is playing. Or new show if it's just the television itself that's not working.

Or maybe it's like walking through fog thick enough that you can barely see what's in front of you at all.

I really can't bring myself to actually care.

I lower my head and look down absently spotting the shadow that we're making. It almost looks like a happy picture, a greyscale background image where the family or people are missing and all you've got to go by are the shadows left on the ground and context clues.

Ghosts of the past.

"Reflections in the shadows..." it's softly spoken, barely even audible but I feel Grandmother tense and Tomoko's confused mental poke. I point blank refuse to really elaborate though slipping back to rest my head against Grandmother. It feels as though I'm being weighed down and I snuggle a bit. Since typically this is the way I attempt to find the ability to sleep.

Yawning I close my eyes. Maybe everything will level itself out after I rest for a little while. My emotions at least will reset themselves and I can deal with them again... That's a good reason I think. I won't be so blank.

This is usually my before sleep way of dealing with things after all.

Blank, monotone, cold.

Chapter Text

Waking is more or less the same as usual. With lingering traces of the blank feeling from the night before. Traces that I easily shake off as I arch myself and roll over cuddling the blankets to myself. I keep my eyes closed for just a few moments longer before opening them and listening to the silence of the morning.

It's still just barely dark outside. Too early for me to really be awake but I can only take a deep breath and allow the feeling of the lingering night to wash over me. To hear the lingering ambience of the night.

Crickets and other nighttime creatures still making their sounds. The light rattling of the wind against the window pane, and if I listened just a little bit more a very, very faint and light patter of rain, rather drizzle on the roof of the house. It's calming, and I take another deep breath simply basking in the ambience, simply enjoying the peace of the night. Of the pre-dawn just ending night really but still night.

I wonder if it will actually start raining properly later on, that would be nice really. I have yet to experience a true storm in this life. Light rain sure, it's happened. But a proper storm...

I haven't seen a storm here yet.

Eventually I shift and sit up pushing the blankets off me and wandering with near silent footfalls through the house and eventually out into the yard. In the pre-dawn light I can just barely make out anything. The clearest thing is the still bare tree though. Dead center in the yard, branches swaying slightly in the wind and in the darkness even more ominous than it usually is.

I absently hum as I wander barefoot to rest beneath it. Feet barely lingering on the grass until they meet dirt and I stand leaning back a little to look up the tree at the branches and stars above. It's quite, calm and peaceful. My tune though is ominous, something like a horror game tune. Or a rendition of the background melody from the slenderman song. I don't really know or recall where I got the hum from I just know that it kind of suits the pre-dawn darkness and the mood. My mood of feeling just a little bit dark, and a little bit ominous. The future is wide open after all and just yesterday I managed to blow up my classroom without blowing up the rest of the school or harming anyone.

Even that one Nara kid who was found still sleeping in the classroom afterwards. I really, really have to wonder how I managed that.

Yet that's neither here nor there as I simply rest settling down between the roots of the tree. My back against the bark and I can feel the light drizzle as it chills me. I can feel the light drops even as I close my eyes and let my head fall back to rest against the trunk. To release my senses to simply feeling the world. To feeling content in the night ambience and quiet. To feel the energy around me curl and thrum in time with the wind. To feel my family still resting in the house their signatures dull with sleep and recovery.

It's nice really and I take a deep breath holding it and feeling my chakra as I breath out. Focusing on that feeling. The echoes of energy within me. And then I take another breath and focus entirely on my breathing and the flow of my chakra moving it around until I can feel it. The warmth inside me spreading from the top of my head to the very tips of my fingers and toes. Feel it in my chest and arms, moving alongside my veins and blood in the same rhythm as my heartbeat.

I can feel the chill of the wind through my jinbei. Through the cotton pajamas that I'm wearing, along with the drizzle that slowly soaks me. Anyone else would likely get annoyed by the feeling. But I can't help but feel that much more relaxed by it. Happy, rain even when it's light like this is incredibly refreshing. Also there's still the warmth of my chakra flowing alongside my blood to consider. With that feeling it's nothing more than a light chill, barely even enough to make me shiver. More like when you turn the air conditioner on just to stand in front of it on a hot day really. A pleasant cooling sensation.

I take another deep breath and then simply sit there with my mouth slightly open even as I can see through the lids of my eyes the sun just beginning to peek through the cloud cover. Beams of light piercing through to herald a new day. I open my eyes up again to stare out across the yard watching the orange spread across the small strip of visible sky. Watching the day as it begins and feeling the night animals as they retreated back to their homes. Feeling the birds as they began to awaken ready to sing to the sun.

It's a nice way to feel better about everything. No panic, no fear and no nightmares. Just an awakening and wandering out into the yard. I remain under the tree though. I'm content not to move from my spot. Content to still feel safe and secure beneath the bare branches that sway with the wind and grasp at nothing in the distance. That never quite grow leaves but still survive.

It's not dead no matter how it looks it. I can feel the steady thrum of it's own energy, especially with my own so close. So close that it's almost touching, yet even without anyone to tell me so... That just seems like a very, very bad idea.

Of course, there's still a little bit of that natural energy thrumming through my body alongside of my own. A bit in anyone, as though it's the very world's way of confirming that you are indeed a part of it. That's a comfort really even as the sunrise begins to shine on me and warm my toes. I wriggle a bit among the roots of the tree before shifting and finally standing up. One hand still rests against the tree allowing me to continue to feel it's energy. To feel it's presence. It's practically instinct to care for this one tree, to hope that one day in the future I'll finally be able to see it grow anew.

Maybe it needs to be set on fire briefly for that to happen...

I shake my head and slowly remove my hand from the bark a faint smile crossing my face. "Thanks for the protection..." I whisper to the tree before wandering back over the yard and inside. I rub a single hand over my eye and then wander down to the kitchen to look for a glass of water. Well cup really since handling glass at this age will more than likely end with me dropping it and smashing it on the floor. The unfortunate truth about still only being a five year old with such chubby and uncoordinated hands.

I'm not in there for very long, only just filling up the cup when Grandmother walks in. I smile up at her with the brightest grin that I can manage. She barely even glances at me before sighing and rolling her eyes, I can see the amusement in that look though. I can see the relief as well. I don't know how much my blank state the day before had worried them, but seeing the relief I can tell that it was a lot. A lot more than I was expecting really. I quietly continue to move through my morning routine as Grandmother prepares a proper breakfast for when Tomoko eventually wakes up.

"Obito!" I pause and look up cap in hand at the sound of my name. "Later today I'm going to be introducing you to someone who'll help you understand how not to cause explosions. Or at least, not as often, or by accident." I blink before nodding my head in understanding.

"Okay Obaachan... Will that be after the Academy?" I have to ask and she nods her head. "'kay, I'll be right home then..." It's a quiet confirmation even as Tomoko finally wanders in bleery eyed and yawning. He takes forever to wake up really, while once I wake up I'm awake. More parallels and opposites right there really.

Differences between us and where we stand in reality.

For the rest of the day I only really pay half a mind to everything that's going on. Rushing through everything and tuning out the boring stuff. I'm actually kind of worried and I'm sure that Kakashi's picking up on that. Not that he wouldn't considering he was right there for my breakdown the day before. Or at least the first part of it really, as was the rest of the academy. Of course when he barks that one shinobi rule at me I turn around and counter it.

"No actually, hiding your emotions isn't a strength. It's a weakness because then it builds up and up until you break. Where showing your emotions allows people to see that you're not afraid to feel, you won't run and hide and you're brave enough to feel them. Having emotions and knowing how to use them, that's the real strength." I nod my head decisively before adding. "Also, it kind of helps you to remember that you're still a human at the end of the day you know. Being able to cry to laugh and to get angry, washing yourself clean of those so that they don't boil over and destroy you."

He stares at me blankly before wandering away. There are a few other kids looking at me and I don't really understand why. I was only stating fact after all. It's much stronger to know your emotions and to understand them to face them head on and show them after all. Hiding them only makes them a bigger weakness when they finally overpower you and you don't understand them after all...

That's basic psychology I'm pretty sure. Basic everyday knowledge that everyone should already know and be aware of...

Then again, considering the shinobi rules ask you to suppress your emotions. They might not even have that basic understanding... Well, it's basic to me.

This world is weird with its basics. Really, really weird. Considering how many children just know that shinobi are normal, death is fully accepted and nobody bats an eye about jonin talking about their kill counts or whatever. Also exaggerated rumours(or maybe their not exaggerated...) can get pretty weird. Then again I don't even know if I have a right to call things weird considering that I am an reincarnation.

Some of my knowledge probably doesn't even apply to this world. Or at least not in the same way.

I mean English for example has pretty much entirely transformed into a 'made up' gibberish twin language shared between me and Tomoko. Then there's mathematics, which well, okay most of the applications of that particular subject are still the same. Science is mostly unknown, or replaced with chakra theories... I don't even know what else I can say there. At least there are strict rules that chakra and even the energy in the air follow. Rules that I can actually understand and twist around to my own benefits really.

So as the Academy is let out I quickly disappear heading home. Ignoring my twins cries as he's dragged off to Kunoichi classes by Rin. His complaints fade out and I chuckle lightly to myself. In all honesty as much as I'm annoyed by them, I won't kick up a fuss and cry over spilt milk. Besides I need to get home as fast as I possibly can. Grandmother did say that she was getting me a tutor, there's no better reason to be fast than that.

Especially since who really knows exactly what my tutor is going to be like. Who knows how they will teach me. Who knows what they will teach me...

Yeah, I'm completely clueless. I know Grandmother said that they'll help me stop causing explosions, but to be fair the one from the day before was the first time that such an occurrence had even really happened. So I'm not even sure that I need the help honestly. I will fully accept it though since it's always nice to get help, to get constructive criticism and understand what I'm doing wrong where and why.

It's also one of the ways that I learn best. Auditory, Tactile, Visual. That's the kind of learner that I am.

My feet barely touch the ground as I move towards home. Moving at shinobi speed really does feel like you're flying. Or that you're on a roller coaster. At least I no longer have extended exposure motion sickness. Otherwise the speed would likely make me begin to feel sick and stop to catch myself.

At least there's that relief I suppose. Even as I begin to slow down ready to skid to a complete stop in front of our home. There's a reason that I elected to go with boots rather than the open-toed sandals that everyone else picked. Aside from the familiarity, they keep my feet just that more protected. Also they take longer to wear down from my actions. Since I run, a lot and most of the children's footwear just isn't made to take the kind of punishment I tend to dish out to my shoes.

Across both of my lives I go through shoes like it's nobody's business. Really, I get replacements every two to three months or so. They just don't last when I'm the one wearing them.

I skid to a stop arms just a bit up above my head before I look up at the entry to the Clan Compound. I'm not really allowed to run within the compound that much anymore. Not since a particular incident. I still do it usually but today I kind of need to make a good impression. Which means taking it a bit slower through the compound. Which also ultimately results in me getting just a touch distracted seeing Mikoto with someone new.

"Mikoto-Hakubo!" I call out kind of bounding over to her and tilting my head peering up at her friend. At least I'm assuming the red haired lady is her friend. I really don't know whether she is or isn't Aunt Mikoto's friend. I don't even know if it's worth wondering, I still look up at her and offer an apologetic smile. Trying not to be rude really. Does a smile count as a greeting?

I don't even know.

I just don't know. So I just offer one up before remembering that I have to get home. Have to meet my tutor after all.

"I'll talk later Mikoto-Hakubo... Obaachan says she's getting me a tutor." Mikoto smiles softly as I turn to disappear only to pause as the lady beside her laughs. "Eh... What's so funny?" I ask spinning around barely registering the swap from Ikioin to English "Am I missing something here?" I frown and narrow my eyes at the red head pushing my goggles back up to rest over my forehead.

She grins at me, sharp and kind of vicious actually. Like a predator looking at its prey. Not a very nice look to be subjected to really. It makes me take several steps back automatically tensing and preparing for who knows what. Maybe a prank considering the red hair buzzed memories of a certain clan in my mind. Mostly forgotten but tales told by my twin were still well remembered. Although whenever I thought of that particular clan the only image that came to mind instantly was actually a whiskered blond face and a painted Hokage monument.

Which as soon as the thought crosses my mind I whip around to look up at the monument just to make sure that it's still clear. I actually have to breathe a sigh of relief when I see that it still is. Which probably deserves the amused looks that Mikoto and the stranger trade with one another but then I'm more interested in finding out who they are.

And whether or not they are an Uzumaki.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's going on here?" I ask tilting my head a bit at the two's amusement. "What do you know that I don't?" I almost hiss out the sentence which comes out once more in English to no one's surprise really. When I get frustrated or angry, or generally want to make a smart alec remark that I don't want others to understand I switch right to English. "I don't like being the butt of a joke like this!" I grumble before feeling myself getting picked up by the red haired lady.

"A tutor? Do you have any idea of what to expect? 'ttebane" I simply gave a bland stare at her.

"Nope! Do you?" it's not the best counter, but the laughter that she gives is more or less a confirmation of my theory. She's my tutor. "So if you're my tutor... Which I'm suspecting... What exactly is it that you're tutoring me in?" and really I am incredibly curious about that. So incredibly curious since no one is really explaining anything to me properly.

It's as though they all expect me to already know and understand the stuff they're talking about. As if they believe that I already know what kind of matches I'm playing around with.

"Fuinjutsu!" She says with an even wider grin if that's possible before sitting me up on her back and waving goodbye to Mikoto. "Don't worry Mikoto-chan! I will bring him back in one piece. 'ttebane"

"We should really stop by Obaachan's first." I state fisting her hair. It's so soft and silken and I like the smell of it really. "Also can we kidnap my brother from Kunoichi class. I don't think that he likes constantly being called a girl very much..." I say it absently as she just moves and we're suddenly in front of the house. Grandmother smiles at me and actually ruffles my hair while I still remain seated on my new tutor's back.

After collecting supplies from my Grandmother we're moving again and before I can really blink we seem to be in a training ground that I'm not familiar with. It's neither an Academy one or an Uchiha owned one then. I look around from my vantage point with a critical eye for a moment before sliding down to stand with my booted feet firmly on the ground as I look up at the red haired likely Uzumaki person.

"Now then. Let the lesson begin." she grins at me before plonking down legs crossed and grinning widely. "I'm Uzumaki Kushina!"

"Uchiha Obito!" I tilt my head with a kind of goofy grin crossing over my face "but you probably already knew that!" it's kind of cheeky but fitting really and I can see the way that Kushina is attempting to hold in her laughter at that response. "So fuinjutsu... What is it?" I am honestly curious.

"This!" She pulls out a series of panted patterns, and words and a couple of kunai that seem to have markings imprinted on them. "Manipulating the world through your intent and words!" she explains holding up one of the tags which has a pattern that reminds me of explosions, the one beside it reminds me faintly of paralysis.

"Cool!" I whisper the word eyes practically shining as I reverently trace the pattern with my fingers and then I look up at Kushina-shishou with a very eager expression. "Let's get started please!"

She laughs and that's when the lesson begins. With the basics of course. Which means more calligraphy. In all honesty though I could care less about finding that annoying because it means that in the future I'll be able to manipulate the very fabric of reality through words along. Through my intent. This is the first step to becoming a reality bender really and heck if I'm not really, really into the idea.

Even if it means I have to begin with the bare bones boring stuff such as writing lines. Learning the rules and memorizing them. The kind of stuff that reminds me that every long journey starts with the first step.

Ink brush in hand though. It feels more like I'm coming home and getting ready to become the very strongest than when I train my body and aim. It feels more like getting ready to fight than when I have a weapon in hand. This is me, words and creativity to spare. Even my chakra hums as I ink down the words of the rules and copy out lines that Kushina-shishou gives me to write. This is me, the kid who once wanted to be an Author, or a teacher in the future. This is me, the kid who believes that words and the pen was mightier than the sword.

After all, words can make people feel so much. So can pictures.

The old saying was a picture is worth a thousand words, but at the same time, sometimes it only takes a single sentence to build a perfect picture. To move someone to tears. To cry, to laugh.

This is who I am. A writer and creative person at heart. Patterns and words, images and pictures. If I can reach out and break the limits put in front of me then I will.

And I'll do it despite anything that tries to stop me. I will forge my own path in this world. With my twin. With Kushina-shishou and of course with my Grandmother and other family. Yet this moment, with an ink brush in hand and spread out scroll in front of me is where it all begins.

The moment where I start to pick that path really and I can feel my grin spread over my face. Feel the satisfaction as I write down what I'm expected to. As I copy out my lines. This is where it begins and who honestly has any idea what the future may hold. Except those who exist outside of time.

Except those who have yet to even be born. Except those who're reading history books just to find out about their pasts.

This is the power of words. They shape society and it's views. With fuinjutsu added in. They even shape reality.

Chapter Text

Spending time with Kushina-shishou is great. Aside from just the Fuinjutsu lessons she also tries to teach me other stuff. She serves as a halfway decent sparring partner, helping me learn how to fight against a larger opponent. Also she doesn't mind my hold over quirks from the time that I was once a female in body. Those moments where I would react to something considered typically feminine and adore it.

Like sparkly paint and glitter. Like fluffy toys and cooking. Like flower arrangements, and sewing. Which I took to much better than Tomoko did. He's always getting frustrated with everything that has to do with Kunoichi and girls and...

It's not like I can even blame him really. He's a boy trapped in a class for girls.

At least he's learning some useful stuff though. I even managed to bug him into teaching me some of it. Tea ceremonies and the music part are simple enough... I guess. I mean it's not like I haven't played an instrument before. But that's neither here nor, there.

Since right now I'm spending time with Kushina-shishou and working on my taijutsu really. It's been a few months really, I'm going to be six in a few weeks and Kakashi has disappeared completely from the Academy. I don't know where he's gone. He's just gone. Well I still see him around Konohagakure but we barely really interact that much anymore except when Kushina-shishou drags a blond man to our training sessions.

Which typically means we interact through sparring. Surprisingly we tend to tie more often than not. Which is an interesting result really. Since we don't train together and I still more often than not keep a leash on my chakra. Or simply allow it to flow through my entire body in a specific way. Kind of like putting LEGO blocks together in a certain way to get a certain effect. Or actually I don't really have a good analogy maybe something to do with dams, bridges and traffic...

Anyway, so the main interaction that I get with Kakashi now is through sparring sessions and training with Kushina-shishou, and the man who I'm assuming is her boy friend or something. I've never really been that good at reading between the lines of such interactions. In terms of skill Kakashi is better in a fight than me especially with his weapons, while I'm catching up I have much, much better chakra control and the ability to quickly adjust my speed on the fly, also dodging and changing direction in mid air.

It's a trick that I discovered by accident playing around in one of our sparring sessions. The point is we kind of balance each other out and run even when it comes to sparring.

We just can't quite land a hit on each other... Or when I do manage it's too weak to do any real damage. Also Kushina confiscated even my rubber weapons after I managed to cut my palm open with them that one time. Chakra and Chakra Enhancement can do some pretty weird things really. Basically though weapons are definitely not allowed anywhere near me. Which I don't mind. I prefer working with just my body, or improvised weapons anyway.

So it all winds up working out in the end.

I thrust a fist forwards twisting my body a bit to keep momentum going. To add a bit more power, it comes from the body not the shoulders... I think. I don't really remember the logistics behind it even as I move into a kick and then flip back to sort of double up the move against some invisible enemy.

Mostly it feels like nothing more than playing around and doing gymnastics though.

Which means I kind of treat a lot of it like a game. Or workout without really thinking too hard about how this would look in a fight. After all, practicing the katas look more like dancing and playing around.

Feels like dancing and playing around.

So I try not to think too hard about what it really is. I try, but at times it's incredibly hard, especially with Kushina-shishou throwing rocks or sticks at me to improve my dodging as I practice my katas. Which okay, to be fair works wonders for my skills. Also it makes me dodge and move in some pretty weird ways. At least I can kind of attack from any position. Spinning around will do that, also kind of break dancy really.

I kind of have the whole move and flow well thing going for me. Also learning to keep my head when upside down is pretty cool. Any part of my body that can be used as a weapon typically is for me as well. Elbows, knees, my head if anyone gets into a position where that's an option. So it's kind of interesting to experiment.

Also being able to maintain my balance from pretty much any angle is kind of awesome. Able to be back on my feet within seconds and have just that particular flow.

It takes a lot of energy and effort though. And practice. I don't exactly have a helmet either to make sure to protect my head when practicing either. A pot worked for a while, but eventually I just ditched it and went with the flow. It's a real work out, and I actually have fun with it. Right up until I trip over myself and just decide to not get back up. That's my limit hit really.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath smile spreading over my face.

"Obito!" I open my eyes back up to see Kushina leaning over me with a huge grin on her own face. "I suppose that's enough for today 'ttebane." she winks and I let out a breathy laugh before being scooped up and rested on her shoulders. "Ramen sound good to you? 'ttebane"

"Sure. Sounds nice. Can we please grab Tomoko-nii on our way?" I ask resting my arms on her head crossing them and resting my chin just behind them.

"Why do you call her that?" it's a quiet question and an honest one. "Why niisan, instead of neechan?"

"Because Tomoko-nii says he's a boy. Because he's a boy... Not a girl. 't would only be polite to use the proper terminology..." I mumble tiredly. "It's like how I still kind of prefer the chan honorific for myself... 'cept I don't really know what I am... I remember being a girl once, but don' really mind being a boy now..." I raise one hand to rub at my eyes pushing my goggles up to even reach them. "So I call him by the proper terms. He's a boy... Not, not a girl."

Kushina barely even pauses as she abruptly changes direction stopping at the front of the Academy to wait for Tomoko to come out so he can join us. It doesn't take too long and he looks grumpy... Also he has ribbons in his hair, which were not there this morning.

He quickly spots us and I can just see the way that his face brightens as he practically bounds over to see what we want. I grin at him when he comes to a stop but before I can say anything Kushina picks him up and he barely gets the chance to wave a quick goodbye to Rin before we're well out of sight of the Academy. And most of the rest of the village. It's a more secluded Training Ground and I actually faintly recognise it from one of our earliest training sessions.

There's still a few scorch marks on the grass.

"Kushina-shishou?" I ask looking a bit confused as she drops Tomoko onto the ground in front of us and looks at him with such a critical eye that I'm actually thrown off. "What's this about?" I actually tug a bit on her hair, which gets me dumped just as roughly onto the ground. Scowling I rub at my tailbone before looking up at her.

"Were you two born in the wrong bodies or something?" she asks pointing at us and I pause. That's actually a very valid question. Especially considering that once I was a girl... Kind of.

"Possibly... But at the same time I highly doubt that the Shinigami makes such mistakes when reincarnating people..." and there's our shared secret blown in one go. Not that my statement earlier of remembering being a girl at one time wouldn't have given up the ghost a bit. At least that one was vague enough to actually pass off as some kind of dream sequence. For someone who was a shinobi in a previous life Tomoko really seems to fail at subtle and stealth.

"Really Tomoko-nii?" I ask single eye twitching as I cross my arms over my chest in a bit of a mood. "You're going to give it away just like that?" He blinks a bit confused and I take a deep breath before blowing it out and looking up at Kushina-shishou kind of thoughtful. "Well that's out of the bag now..."

"Reincarnation?" she sounds so lost and I can see the way that Tomoko smirks.

"Well... Being reborn really. But that's close enough I would suppose." I say running a single hand through my hair. I actually manage to suppress the shudder that even recalling my rebirth sends through me. Tomoko not so much, he shivers probably recalling the highly traumatic experience of being squeezed through a small hole and then well you know... Born. "Although I still don't recall dying first..."

Tomoko actually snickers from beside me before crossing his arms and tucking them away behind his back. A shared smile crosses both of our faces as Kushina manages to look even more bewildered if that's even possible. She looks between us and I widen my smile just a touch more. Not to appear threatening but simply to show my amusement with this situation.

Maybe it's a huge risk. But really from what I've seen Kushina-shishou is incredibly good at keeping secrets. I know that she's different, just from her signature it's huge and there's something under it hidden away. She never talks about it and it's easy to miss, to pass off but sometime I notice that it's important. Something secret and if it weren't for my supersensitivity I know that I would have missed that she was hiding anything at all.

So honestly I don't mind quite as much as I probably should about her finding out this way.

"So, in my previous life... I was assigned female at birth." I frown. "But ultimately I don't know what in the world I was... 'cause I certainly never felt like I was a girl, or that I was a boy... Maybe somewhere in the middle, maybe somewhere entirely off the chart... But I don't know."

"And in my previous life I was a boy all the way around." Tomoko says shrugging. "In body, mind and soul." He explains before continuing. "So I'm still a boy. As Obito-chan agrees." I snicker as he pauses for a brief moments before saying the honorific still not entirely sure of how he's supposed to refer to me.

I'm fine with it really.

Absolutely fine with it. Since I probably slipped up more than once getting used to referring to him as a him at first. Even if only in my head. Since I barely really spoke that much at first. Well, or not that often considering once I get started speaking I don't really stop. I just talk and talk for hours once I really get going. Once I get enthused.

Kushina-shishou though still looks rather baffled by our explanation. So I take a deep breath and close my eyes before trying again.

"We died... Got reborn... And the Shinigami is probably behind this whole mess. Neither of us believe that they would make a mistake. So our gender problems are likely on purpose... Or is Kami behind rebirth... I was never really clear on that..." I mutter the last part with a hand running over my chin in thought.

"Point is though it doesn't matter." Tomoko shrugs. "I'm a boy and Obito is gender neutral and that's everything that matters."

"Yeah that sounds about right." I agree with a nod of my head. "I still don't have a proper term for myself after all. Gender Neutral works as a catch all I guess... Or Genderqueer." I shrug my arms before looking up at Kushina-shishou who no longer looks quite so lost by our explanation or weirdness.

"You two lived before this? 'ttebane?" and of course she focuses on our rebirth status first. I almost want to facepalm but instead just kind of nervously laugh before nodding my head. "That must have been traumatic!" she says it bluntly and I kind of shrug. It kind of was, but at the same time... Well I don't really recall that much of it because time during the early days of our rebirth kind of blurred together into monotone days of pretty much the same thing.

It's also likely the reason that I barely remember anything about the parents of this life beyond the fact that they existed and were warm. That they cared, and that they loved so incredibly much. It's kind of hard to really explain though, hard to define so I mostly let those thoughts fall through the cracks.

"It probably was at the time..." I say thoughtfully. "But I've mostly forgotten about it... Ne Tomoko-nii what about you?"

"Honestly... I try not to think about it at all. First we were born, then the humiliation of being helpless so completely... Followed by Okaachan and Otousan's deaths..." he trails off rubbing at his arms a bit self consciously. "It's like the link between us... Like those weird shared dreams and nightmares..."

I blink and tilt my head. To be perfectly honest I barely register the link as any problem. It's a communicative thing really, we both put some into it. We both allow it to remain at the strength that it is by sharing emotions of comfort and safety with one another. The dreams and nightmares, shared memories and experiences that still happens even now. They're just a side effect of sharing such a link... And more confusing than not.

"I think that they're memories actually..." I rub the back of my head switching straight to English. Even with Kushina right there. This particular topic, it's ours. Our shared link and our twin stuff to deal with. "I mean seriously, we're twins and the link is our bond. Our unique circumstances just means that it's trying to even us out or something..."

"Is that language from your previous life? 'ttebane" hearing Kushina speak like that draws me back to reality with a bit of a shock and I look up at her with such wide eyes before slowly nodding my head. "Where's it from? What's it called... It seems familiar 'ttebane."

"English..." I say simply staring at her while in the same moment Tomoko reacts.

"You've heard it before as well!" we both look at each other before looking right up at Kushina-shishou with such desperate hope.

"Where!" it's in synchronization and I can see her bemused look.

"Oh just a traveler who seemed to be rather lost 'ttebane." she smirks as we both frown. Although mine is a bit more thoughtful than just plain upset. "Now exactly where did you two learn it? 'ttebane"

"Oh, it was my primary language in my previous life." I say waving a single hand in the air kind of flippantly. "Also really if you think that it's impressive that we can speak it then you should really see us write it." Tomoko snickers a bit as I smirk. I know that saying that entirely in English was probably cruel but I really do not want to talk about this particular subject. I just don't want to share this particular aspect of my past. At least not in this way. Maybe later on I'll actually share it properly but right now I just don't want to share it. "Really though Kushina-shishou just stop asking about it... Neither of us are quite ready to share."

"Especially since in my previous life I was a Nukenin!" Tomoko shrugs his shoulders and he is definitely lucky that most of that is completely incomprehensible to Kushina. She still narrows her eyes at him though. The word Nukenin after all is definitely still understandable to her.

Still the same and therefore she can obtain a bit of information from that. I still sigh and then offer her my most honest smile.

"Really though Kushina-shishou it's fine." I mutter and look down at the ground a but annoyed. "We're mostly over any issues that we may have had with our situation." and then I pause before adding "Well except maybe the Gender thing... Because Gender is always a hard one to deal with."

"Yeah. Except maybe the Gender thing..." Tomoko mutters glaring down at his own body as though it were the worst thing in the world. Or maybe he's just glaring at the dress that he's wearing. I can't really tell. "I kind of wish that I knew how to change completely now... And permanently..." he mutters in regards to his gender and I snicker.

"Are you sure 'ttebane?" I nod my head. "Really sure?"

"Of course Kushina-shishou!" I huff a bit before sighing. "Well except you know... I was a civilian in my previous life. So this whole shinobi thing... It's a bit of a big adjustment. The morals, the whole thing... It's kind of a bit overwhelming at times."

"Especially suddenly being able to feel everything right Obito-chan?" it's Tomoko and I nod my head curling up a bit sitting down on the ground. "I don't have quite as many problems Kushina-nee... It's more that I have to deal with growing up again and relearning everything... And well okay the different flow to my chakra."

That catches my attention. Does that mean that chakra flows differently in girls and boys... A quick stretch of my senses actually confirms that thought. It's interesting actually, because the flow in my body is pretty much a straight cycle through. With more chakra supporting my organs and ribs because that's important. In Kushina-shishou and Tomoko though. Chakra is wrapping around in their abdomens in a way that suggests support for the uterus and ovaries... Protection for any children they may choose to have in the future then.

"Huh... That's interesting..." I muse blinking and staring up at nothing. "Must mean that puberty is going to be even more interesting and awkward than I first expected..." I run a hand under my nose even as Tomoko looks completely horrified. The thought of puberty only just being brought up by me likely.

This is probably the first time he's even considered it.

"Puberty?" it's choked and I blink before snickering in realization. Even Kushina looks amused. She probably knows and thinks the same thing as me really. She probably believes that it's going to be such an adventure.

Quite amusing from an outsiders perspective I would guess.

"Don't worry Tomoko-nii. I'll help you find any pads or other menstruation help items that you need." I actually pause for a bit before adding. "And chocolate. Lots of chocolate. That helps a bit not with the pain but just feeling better for a brief moment."

"Thanks..." he sounds so mortified and I wonder if I might have said something wrong.

"Tomoko-nii?" I ask and he laughs nervously before going bright, bright red and spinning around running off. "D-did I say something wrong?"

"No!" Kushina shakes her head looking just a touch too amused for me to be comfortable.

"I did... Didn't I?"

Chapter Text

Academy Student Rebellion

So Gai is now in our class. And honestly I don't know what I'm supposed to think of him. I mean he's loud, and bright, and has something of an overload of green in his colour scheme. It's rather overwhelming really. So I just kind of don't think about it. I respond to him when he's there. I react to him when he is there.

I also actually treat him more like a person than most people. Which means that he kind of proclaims that I'm his best friend whenever we hang out.

He is really, really enthusiastic. Also kind of great to hang around with when I want to sit quietly and watch someone else do work. Which kind of means that I just casually sit on his back while he does whatever exercise.

At the same time, he's kind of confusing with the Springtime of Youth thing. With his challenges and proclamations of eternal rivalry to Kakashi. Which I rarely get to watch. Kakashi doesn't really participate in the rivalry that much. Sure he partakes in the challenges when issued, but he typically does everything in his power to absolutely avoid any and all of them. Unless I'm near then it seems that he insists on proving a point or something.

Showing off really.

I make a fairly good audience really. I am always enthused to see them challenge one another. Even if it's only something like rock, paper, scissors. Or that one time that I managed to convince them to have a paper plane race... Neither of them really won that one. I had to teach them both how to fold one and somehow got myself involved to the point where when we all threw the paper planes mine went the furthest. Which honestly was kind of fun really.

Especially because it had been an incredibly long time since I'd even gotten the chance to really make paper planes. I mean really I only barely remembered how to make them. It was still fun though.

But dealing with Gai in general is kind of weird. I mean it's not like I don't enjoy it. But I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with it. I mean it's not like I don't enjoy his company but at times there is a point where I just feel like blanking out and allowing Gai to holler his enthusiasm to nothing and everything.

Also I still don't quite get the symbolism behind the seasons. There's something there in my mind, but I can't quite figure it out. I just can not quite figure it out. I understand that Spring has something to do with beginnings, and Winter is quite likely the time of the dead, the darkest days... But it's kind of confusing. Since Gai only ever really proclaims about the Springtime of Youth and Spring in general. I don't even know how I should be reacting to it. I just don't know how I should react to it.

So I just react as if Gai were a completely normal person. Which has lead to some pretty hilarious conversations where I sound so completely bored with everything and Gai is shouting at the top of his voice at me. Proclaiming everything in such an enthusiastic way that even my more normal reactions and tone comes across as bored in comparison. It also serves to make Gai even more enthusiastic since I don't treat him any differently than I treat anyone else.

Same with Kakashi.

Apparently that makes people like me a bit more. Or well, just kind of view me as weird. The civilian kids do anyway. Also my twin kind of gives me a weird look whenever I talk about Gai as if he's perfectly normal. Which he is once you take away the whole Springtime thing.

"Ne niisan. I don't understand, why does everyone find Gai so weird?" He looks at me as if I just asked him why the sky were blue, or the ocean wet. "I think that he might have some sort of different way of thinking... But I wouldn't know what." I hum a bit before snagging one of the onigiri from our shared food box to munch on. "I mean it's like how you an' me kind of have our own quirks. I have an Autism Spectrum Disorder. An' you probably do to... But specifics are weird."

"Have you listened to the way that he speaks. Different way of thinking or not... He's weird." he huffs and I barely bat an eye at his comment. "Besides... It's catchy. If you start spouting proclamations of Youth and Spring..."

"Don't worry Niisan." I laugh bright and happily at his fears. "If I do you can trust Kakashi to rein it in." He looks even more horrified by that prospect and I laughed even more at the expression before lightly punching him in the shoulder. "Kakashi's not that bad niisan. He's my best friend after all... Kind of anyway." I shrug afterwards not really sure how to continue explaining the odd relationship that I shared with Kakashi. It was only an almost friendship really. Because he was weird, in his awkward we're not friends but I will be possessive and defensive of you way. He's kind of the king of mixed signals right now and I have not been able to properly catch him just to sit down and talk through our not quite a friendship but still a friendship kind of relationship.

It's weird, I'm weird and at least I get to spend the occasional break with Kakashi just to sort of not quite hang out. Usually it ends up being training, of a kind. I kind of have to deal with him coaching me on whatever failure he sees in me, while I counter with trying to help him with his emotions. Lecturing him on hiding them away and allowing them to build up and up until they reach the eruption point.

I swing my legs back and forth humming a tune absently and watching everyone else as they all prepare for the standard Academy Camping Trip. I'm kind of planning chaos for this really. Camping is not one of my favourite things to participate in really. I can tolerate it. But I've never ever had a good Camping experience.

Never ever had a single good experience on a camping trip.

"Hey Tomoko-nii... Do you think that we could start an uprising while out on the camping trip?" I wonder it almost absently, off hand really. "The assistant looks about as knowledgeable about our abilities as our original sensei was on the first day at the Academy..."

"Hmm... If we time it right... Maybe get Gai to cause a distraction..." he hums and shoves an Onigiri in his own mouth before seemingly lighting up. "That could work!" he smirks and I giggle we're going to cause complete chaos.

Kushina-shishou will be so proud.

I grin and jump up before looking over to the parents finishing helping their kids get ready for the trip with a couple of last minute supplies. Last minute tips. I soon locate Gai, who's standing by Kakashi and that blond man. I blink before running over waving at them cheerfully with a bright vibrant grin.

"Hey Gai-san! Kakashi-kun!" I grin at them both and Kakashi barely gives me a glance before resuming his glaring at Gai who seems to be mostly oblivious. "Hello Blondie-san" I really can't be bothered to learn his name. I don't really care before I grin. "Do you want to help me with a prank Gai-san? I want to see how long it would take the assistant to notice..."

"Notice what?" I almost jump and look up at the aptly called Blondie-san. I kind of fall completely silent as well, because how am I supposed to explain it. He raises a brow at me before I sort of shrug.

"Chaos Theory..." well, it's as good an excuse as any really. Before I sort of grin. "Anyway... It's going to be fun. Something Kushina-shishou would be proud of. We're going to cause an uprising among the students and pull a non-hostile take over... Well okay maybe kind of hostile. But we're going to take control." sometimes I really have to love the fact that English is an option here, because Blondie-san looks so lost and confused. "Anyway, I want to see how long it will take the Assistant to notice that they've lost control of the situation. That they're been played by a bunch of six and seven year olds."

If we actually manage to pull this off we're likely to be pushed ahead a bit considering the whispers of war that I hear on the breeze but at the same time. I really, really do not enjoy camping that much and many of these lessons tend to be repetitive. Also, Grandmother already taught us a fair amount of this stuff.

Catch and cook your own food, besides it's not like the only thing that I'm not allowed near is weapons. Using a knife is easy, just let me get in close and show you.

I shake my head a bit to clear it before grinning at Gai, and Kakashi. They're both staring rather blankly at me. Same as Blondie-san. Which reminds me again that they don't understand English. I kind of snap my fingers together in that annoyed way that Sniper used to in Dora before huffing.

"Remind me to get Tomoko's help in teaching you guys and Rin-san how to understand us when we do that..." I mutter before nodding my head briefly and turning to leave. "Hey Gai-san, come find us and Rin-san sometime during the trip... I'll fill you in more then." I pause and give a glance to Kakashi thoughtful before cheerfully adding. "Feel free to crash the Party at any point Kakashi-kun!"

I swiftly move away. Disappearing to meet with my twin. Maybe to discuss further plans, or else to plot more chaos. Who really knows.

Really though the time quickly passes and before I can really keep track we're in one of the tree covered training grounds with Camping Gear just beginning to get set up. Gai is as enthusiastic as usual and Rin is stuck at his side. Probably at my twin's insistence since she is rather good at reining him in when he gets way, way over the top. The more over the top he gets... The more everyone else kind of gets caught up in it.

I know because even when I treat him normally, normal means get excited with him at certain points.

Rin is a balancer really. Incredibly good at drawing people back from their highs. Leveling them out and keeping us from flying off into a rainbow sunset.

I would know that one better than anyone would think. I have my moments, and even Tomoko can't keep me entirely level once I get really going. It's shades of stuff left over from my original life that mix and grow with stuff in this new life. Stuff that I find and then run with... Sometimes rather literally. Circles are still rather comforting after all, good at helping me think and calm down.

Although they tend to confuse everyone else. Although Gai will jump up and join me running them if he spots me doing them.

So we both settle down and watch, wait for the perfect moment. Wait for the best moment to spring the plan. To overthrow the sensei and then figure out some stuff from there. Maybe we could kidnap Tora again... Although how would we even convince the demon cat to even enter this particular training ground. Catnip? Does anyone even have any of that stuff on them. Gai might considering how much just in case stuff he tends to carry around.

I scratch a hand through my hair thoughtfully as my twin brings his hand up to his lip and then blows a single sharp whistle.

Everything cascades from there. It's absolutely glorious really especially because the assistant squeals like such a freaking princess(or prince... Or entitled rich kid) initially when they wind up dog piled. Almost literally considering that there's a dog sitting proudly on top.

"Ne. Sensei! This camping trip has been over ruled!" I say crossing my arms behind my back and smirking eyes partially closed as I smugly stand in front of them. "Well, split into squads right... Practicing for hostage and bargaining!" I shout out. Pretty much this is a simulation... I'm actually surprised at how well the other children went with this idea, each of us kind of making our own squads of at least five members. Although the largest group has eight.

"Asuma-san, Kurenai-chan!" I wave at the two as they amble over to join us. Tomoko-nii leaning against a tree with a smug grin while Gai practically wears holes into the ground with his excitement. "So now what... We're basically acting as if our Assistant Sensei is an enemy who needs to be rescued..." I actually don't have any clue where we are supposed to go with this. I don't know what happens next. Neither does anyone else really. Our group, our 'squad' is more or less the lead one, but I don't really know which of us is the taicho, I don't know who is actually in charge.

Possibly Tomoko, possibly me. Asuma seems content to just relax and be there, Kurenai isn't arguing for that position. Rin opted out and Gai... Well no one else takes him seriously enough. Which means that really our squad is co-lead. Because there is no way that I actually trust myself to just know what to do.

"All we need to do is now complete the assignment." Tomoko says almost bored. "And keep Sensei 'prisoner' of our group for the entire time!" he sighs and I laugh clapping my hands together.

"Anything goes more or less! This is a shinobi version of Capture the Flag! Sensei is the flag, or Hostage really. The aim of each group is to 'rescue' him to keep as their prisoner until the end of the trip. Remember to collaborate with your team mates... Also consider it an epic fail if you somehow manage to kill sensei, or injure them more than they already are!" I hold up a hand and grin as everyone looks up at me and Tomoko who's kind of slouching beside me.

"Ready..." We both stop as there's a flop from beside us and peering over there's a familiar silver haired brat. "Set!" I grin at Kakashi and flash a thumbs up as he leans against a nearby tree trying to look uninterested. "And GO!"

Everyone disappears and our group looks at one another before I spin around to face Kakashi and basically welcome him aboard.

He looks amused by the whole situation actually. Also at the fact that our sensei actually is that bad to wind up tied up by a bunch of children even with a fair few hours of forewarning. I mean it's not like we were actually that subtle about the whole thing. Not really.

"Nice of you to join us Kakashi-kun!" I cheerfully state ignoring my twins glare at Kakashi from my side.

"Come to the dark side. We have cookies!" I don't even bother to grace that one with a look even though I kind of snort to hear that particular reference from my twin. I loved the random lines that I found on people's profiles in my previous life after all. And that really was one of the best.

"So, positions. Rin-chan is the healer, or at least the one who knows the most about that. Gai-san and Asuma-san double as scouts and hunters. Kurenai-chan is the diverter, and genjutsu manager. I'm one of the main stockpilers also an a defender, and Tomoko-nii is the second genjutsu manager." I actually frown before snapping my fingers together. "I know, you could be our strategist... Or help with that stuff!"

Kakashi doesn't really look at that impressed but hey, at least I'm trying. I don't really know this stuff.

I was never really that into strategy and war games after all.I mean sure I tried my hands at some of those games where you build a city and then have to defend it or whatever... But seriously. I was never good at them.

Meet the failure at Age of whatever... Or well, most strategy games. My brother was the chess whiz while meanwhile I struggled with checkers... I was at least half way decent at Monopoly anyway. And with my money in general when I actually payed any mind to it.

Strategy and keeping a schedule though, yeah no.

"Erm... That works right Kakashi-kun?" I can feel heat in my cheeks as I kind of scratch a single hand through my hair before quickly moving to use my goggles to shield my eyes from view. It's kind of embarrassing really, because even Tomoko is at least half way decent with forethought and planning and then there's me. I'm better at improvisation and coming up with things on the fly. They typically will work out but at the same time.

"It works well enough." he finally says and I actually feel myself sigh in relief before moving to wave at everyone else. To introduce Kakashi properly. Although it's probably unnecessary really, at least for Gai, Rin and my twin. Asuma and Kurenai at least seem to have had no prior interaction with Kakashi.

"This is Kakashi-kun!" I cheerfully say and Gai hollers out his greeting joyfully. Rin's own from beside Gai is more contained but just as happy. Tomoko-nii's greeting is faintly frosty and Asuma and Kurenai greet him politely. Or well mostly politely if Asuma's casual indifference counts as polite. Then again disinterest seems to mostly be Asuma's default at most times. I think that he's starting the teen rebellion stage early honestly because his father is the Hokage. That's a lot of pressure right there really.

Not that the title of genius that Kakashi has doesn't have the same kind of pressure. Also I keep getting called something of a genius by Kushina whenever she allows me to drift off and scribble some of my own fancy patterns and designs for seals. Also Tomoko has high expectations on him as well... Then again, this whole generation seems to have high expectations placed on them. On us.

I think that it's something in the air really. Something about Konohagakure.

Of course this little exercise that I came up with because I'm not the happiest camper is probably not helping at all.

"Hey... What supplies do we all have anyway? Trapping stuff(pranking stuff), food and weapons? Tents and Sleeping Bags?" I hum and look over everyone. We all pretty much have our own bags, our own gear but it's a good idea to have at least a basic knowledge of what we all have. I know that Rin has the most medical supplies, even though I also have a bunch of bandages and emergency medical supplies of my own.

"Well we have about two days worth of regular food between us... But the trip is supposed to last an entire week." Tomoko hums rubbing a hand over his chin in consideration. "As for other supplies, I've got two spools of ninja wire... The safety kind as well. An unopened paint carton! Although why I even packed that I don't know... It's there if we need it though. Rubber Kunai and shuriken... Also supplies for gutting rabbits and setting up traps to catch some food that way."

"Right... Huh, that's a lot less than I expected really... Then again, I still haven't quite figured out storage seals yet. Or anything else. Explosives though. I've got some smoke bombs... Well smoke tags really!" I shrug my shoulders. Kushina actually cleared those ones with me and I'm allowed to use them... For the most part anyway.

Even if it's supposed to be supervised it's not like anyone is going to tell on me in this context. At least not in a way that would be believable, or even worth it if they did. I mean really, the assistant sensei would practically be laughed out of the room if they ever admitted that we'd managed to take over the camping trip. Also they would be fired.

Because really who can't control a bunch of six and seven year olds. Okay actually a fair amount of people really can't. But who could lose to them.

Well okay, apparently a fair few people considering that this is a shinobi village and some of these kids can be scary. Even without my whole past life thing going on, I can tell that I would have touches of this feeling that I am more than I seem. It's probably an Uchiha thing actually, our cousins have that feel after all. Both younger and older.

"Oh I also have some flares that I grabbed just in case of extreme emergency. Or you know if anyone is stupid enough to try and break into Konoha and attack Academy Students." I snap my fingers together before clapping my hands and grinning. "Well then, let's make this work alright!" I say with a shrug before beaming at everyone. "We all know what we're doing right Squad?" I really don't have anything better to call us. Maybe something to do with Latin or who knows. Eh, if we ever pull something like this again and it becomes relevant I'll think about it then... Right now it doesn't really matter.

It really doesn't matter.

"Alright then! Let's make this work!" I shout throwing a fist up in the air and then instantly ducking down as something flies overhead. "We're under attack!" I can't keep the grin from my voice really, because this is having fun shinobi child style.

Pretty much playing Ninja. Except with more people, and more structure. Since we have a vague mission and there are enough of us that we each have our own groups and alliances. This is the best thing ever really. Having fun learning how to be shinobi. And, learning how to work well in a team or a squad.

Figuring out stuff for the future I would suppose.

As it stands though we simply all react ready to face off against the opposing squad for the moment. My grin widens.

This is going to be fun. Really, really fun.

Chapter Text

Chapter Thirteen: Day Two; On How To Annoy your Hostage

(Or why I'm not allowed to guard the Assistant Sensei ever. To be fair neither is Kakashi... Or any of us really.)

Time passes relatively quickly and soon enough it's the second day of the trip. I rest on a branch in the tree that we've tied the assistant sensei to. It's also right in the middle of our camp really. We've taken turns sleeping at least. Kind of... Considering that some of us(me and Tomoko) barely sleep with a regular schedule anyway that's fine.

So I simply rest, it's really, really early in the morning. With no light yet to appear beyond the faint before dawn and before sunrise light.

It's also cold and I'm not really wearing any warm clothing. Not really, I just haven't felt like wearing anything warm. Konohagakure is kind of a warm place in general, even at night time. Even during the winter, when I was born. So I barely really shiver even though it's cold. I've actually sat in colder after all, try sitting in snow wearing short sleeves for a while. I never said that I was really the brightest after all.

I take a deep breath and raise my head back resting against the trunk as I peer up into the sky staring at the stars and waxing moon. It's peaceful really and I close my eyes for a few moments just to take in the feeling of peace.

I really have never truly been one for camping. Even now, here I can't quite enjoy myself. The feeling of having nothing but fabric between me and danger. Full exposure really, so I just don't enjoy camping.

But I do enjoy the peace that comes with hanging around in this area. Hanging in the tree and gazing up at the sky as it slowly begins to lighten. I barely even twitch as Kakashi appears on the branch beside me. It's nice really. He is good company in his own way. The silence that he offers is comforting and much better than endless chatter.

It's not that I don't enjoy simply sitting and listening to such things, but the quiet is definitely nice as well you know.

Nice and peaceful. It holds no expectations of a response somewhere down the road when you've tuned out the rest of the conversation. When it's all become mindless. So sitting quietly in the tree with Kakashi just there is nice. I don't have to worry about being drawn back into a conversation out of nowhere with no idea how I'm supposed to respond, or what I'm supposed to respond to.

A smile crosses my face and I shift just a touch to let Kakashi know that I actually am aware that he's there. Looking over at him it's nice to see that he is actually smiling even beyond that mask. It's only a small smile, but it's enough. It's always enough.

The sky brightens some more and we both look up to watch as the stars wink out of existence in the morning sunlight. I stretch out a bit toes curling and hands clenching. With a swift and fluid movement I'm onto my feet and hopping down to land softly on the grass with barely any disturbance. It still takes another hour or so for everyone else to awaken though. Well aside from Gai, who was already up at the same time as me and Kakashi.

Have to give him kudos really.

Especially since he's been working out for that long as well. He is really a good hard worker. I kind of envy his ability to just do things like that. As if working out like that is simple. As if it's easy. Where as for me and Tomoko we both tire fairly easily, even if I can last longer when allowing my chakra to flow free. But for this camping trip, I'm going with that handicap. So all my chakra is tightly bundled into a tight ball within me.

It's not that much of a noticeable difference by this point actually. Not on the surface, even if it does mean that I tire out much quicker than those around me. I still look like a weakling really and I'm actually kind of proud of that.

Maybe I'm a weirdo, but it actually is something of an accomplishment really. Since you know I'm a six year old, sixteen going onto six... Something... Anyway and there's still this lingering want to show off at times. Like Kakashi does, scream to the world that I'm strong and powerful and something to fear. But there's something to be said for gut instincts. So I never do, I keep a careful lid on my actual control and abilities and just go with it.

I know to listen to my instincts. It's always a good idea.

"So we all set for the day?" I cheerfully greet everyone ignoring Asuma's annoyed, still half asleep glare and Kurenai's giggling. "First thing should be trapping. Both animal traps for food... And of course non-lethal traps for our fellow students and challengers!" I suddenly feel like a competitor in the Hunger Games... Should I be worried? I actually pause to consider that for a moment while everyone else maneuvers themselves to actually get to work. We all have a relatively decent idea of what we're supposed to do after all.

Mostly anyway.

I mean really we are still only a bunch of six and seven year old kids. So we go about setting up the traps with laughter and mixed chaos. At least the snares for rabbits and other small animals are easy(relatively anyway) to set up. Also those age old traps which are basically a loop of rope on the ground ready to yank you up by your leg and leave you hanging there. They're really simple as well... Though I really don't understand how they work or even why.

They work and I just give up on logic after that resting against a tree with a smile. Kakashi is on the other side and he legitimately feels and looks as though he's just casually chilling there as if there is nothing abnormal about this. That actually reminds me of something actually.

"Hey Kakashi-kun, how did you get the all clear to join us?" I really am curious, because typically he always says that he's busy, that he has stuff to do. So for him to be here, it's really curious. "I mean, usually you always say that you're busy and stuff. Also I know that you certainly train with Blondie-san a lot... I mean hey Kushina-shishou has us spar under his watch occasionally. I just, I'm curious okay. How did you manage to find the time to join us in this particular escapade?"

He is completely silent and I don't really react to his silence beyond a small sigh. I can actually honor that really. Still I pull my legs up and cross my arms over my knees peering at everyone else as they have fun practicing their taijutsu, or stretches, or just figuring out how things work. Gai at least seems to be having fun patrolling around doing laps to check and see if anyone else has attempted another 'attack' on us.

The wind blows and I close my eyes again.

It's peaceful really, just hanging around with nothing but the world ahead of us. Forest around us, and relative quiet as the rest of the world slowly catches up to us. I feel the wind blow through my hair, can feel the goggles hanging loosely around my neck and my clothing loose in general for fluid movement. Boots on my feet and, it's nice really.

Nice very nice.

My eyes open back up to see Kakashi is right in front of me. I'll be completely honest... I kind of jumped and flailed because what the hell. We were almost nose to nose and he had been so quiet.

"Seriously don't do that!" my cheeks are blazing red with embarrassment and a touch of offence and defensive anger. "It's kind of weird and awkward and I do have a personal space bubble!" I switch to English half way through my sentence getting more and more flustered. "Besides... Being that close... It was almost like you were going to kiss me or something..." And now I'm the one being awkward... We're only six after all.

Although in a couple of Months it will be February and then I'll be seven. Which is awesome. Of course Tomoko will also be seven, he'll probably make a bigger deal out of it than I will. Really I don't pay too much attention to things such as birthdays because I just don't see the point.

So you're a year older. It's just another year closer to death.

I narrow my eyes at Kakashi as his eyes practically sparkle with a hidden smirk and his amusement. I almost want to whack him just because I can. He always does this, on purpose sneaking around just to surprise people. The troll.

I end up rolling my eyes before looking around. Kurenai and Asuma are busy off working on something, genjutsu trap I think? Tomoko-nii and Rin are both over at the edge of the clearing going through the bandages and other few medical supplies that we have... Gai is... Somewhere that I can't see at a glance. I actually wind up looking around rapidly for him before eventually just giving up.

He'll be fine probably... Although I still shiver and not due to the breeze. Something about Gai running off on his own gives me a sense of imminent doom.

I glance over to Kakashi who has shoved his hands into his pockets. Which honestly causes me to glance at his just that touch closer. He actually has pockets. I shake my head before looking over to our tied up Assistant Sensei. They look incredibly annoyed, and determined. They're actually trying to chew through the ropes keeping them bound.

I have to give them credit for that one really. Except I have just the way to divert their attention with a rather innocuous and purposefully inaccurate comment.

"Ne... Kakashi-kun, do you think that Sensei is getting a bit hungry?" I ask, with just the right amount of mischief and amusement. Kakashi peers at the assistant and tilts his head before seriously replying.

"Clearly they do." he nods his head and I don't even have to look to know that the Assistant Sensei has paled. I can here their quiet meep as we both turn slowly with absolute devil looks on our faces trying to figure out what we'll feed them.

Whatever we choose it's not likely to be entirely classed as food. Although hey, I've drank dirt before so yeah. Maybe we'll mash up some earthworms and cook them... Is that a thing that people actually do or is it just kids? I know that there are certain insects that can be cooked and eaten as snacks though... Crickets and Grasshoppers, a certain species of ant. Of course considering the Aburame Clan...

Yeah different idea then.

"Ne Kakashi-kun, do you think that we could try to catch some fish to feed to sensei?" I ask and Kakashi shrugs. I think that's decided then. I swiftly straighten up and kind of look around at the blown leaves and general absence of the rest of our squad. "I'll just go get us some fish then!" I cheerfully wave and dash off, boots leaving faint prints in the dirt as I seek the stream that I'm able to hear.

Seeing the water is fairly clear I peer in at the rocks visible at the bottom. I can actually see small darting shapes, not fish though. Tadpoles. I stare with wide eyes distracted for a while before reaching a single hand into the water. It's cool and moist of course but keeping my hand there long enough I get to feel one of them brush up against it curiously. It tickles a bit even through the growing numbness effect that the water is causing.

I smile, it's soft and at ease really. Even now with the forest and the energy around me. Moments like this, they're nice watching and interacting with nature in its most pure form. New life and growing changes. I take a deep breath and draw my hand back before following the stream down. I can't really see any fish actually. But just seeing the rippling water, the few tadpoles and enjoying the peace.

It's almost enough to make it worth it just for those things.

Just for the simplicity really.

And then there's a darker darting shape. Larger, more familiar in another sense. An actual fish big enough to possibly be a source of food. I stop feet disrupting a few pebbles and sending them into the water as I peer into it crouching. I tense and watch eyes narrowed and focused. Even with my goggles perched in my hair I can follow the shape.

Closer, closer and I almost hold my breath watching it circle around in the stream. Right up until the moment that I strike. Using speed I almost wasn't aware that I had to literally grab it right out of the water.

I hear clapping and my head snaps up to see Gai standing right there. There's a beat or two of silence before I feel my cheeks heating right up and jolt back to my feet holding the still wriggling fish in one hand before mumbling some nonsense excuse and dashing away to deliver my prize to Kakashi.

Honestly though it's more to get away from that minor source of humiliation. Really Gai's timing there was incredible.

Also, I kind of just never expected him to see that. Didn't expect anyone ot see that since it was a moment of weakness almost. Letting my guard drop down to the point where someone could just sneak up and... Also fishing that way isn't exactly normal. Not even for shinobi, for animals like bears and birds the hold still and strike can be... But I don't even know.

I am just not sure of the accuracy of any of this really. Since I never really thought about it that much. My movements gradually slow the closer to our camp that I get. Eventually I halt completely just at the edge of the clearing, able to see Kakashi and our assistant sensei. I hold my position there for a fair while actually, the fish eventually going completely still in my grip as I waver between handing it over and proceeding to just duck away again in embarrassment.

In the end I take a deep breath and step out walking over to Kakashi. Also I ignore the snickering from my twin over at the sidelines. I really don't pay attention to him though as I offer the fish rather proudly to Kakashi... Which is also the moment I notice that my sleeve is actually still dripping a bit with water. I try not to think anything about it though, because it's just water. Kakashi doesn't really react either way.

Not even with a slightly raised brow he takes the fish and then kind of stops there. All things considered... I don't think that any of us really know what we're supposed to do at this point. I mean I have never really gone fishing. Never really had to deal with the after math either. I mean yeah occasionally we've had fish but that's store bought so this is new territory. Incredibly new actually and it seems as though it's new to Kakashi as well since he proceeds to simply stare at the fish with a touch of bewilderment.

"I'm only about 65 percent sure that it's not poisonous!" I cheerfully decide to add to the moment. I also blithely ignore the Sensei paling in the background. They really don't matter in these moments...

Not really I mean we've got to keep them alive, but at this moment they don't matter.

Since we really need to figure out how to deal with the fish.

Usually Grandmother would take over at this point... And I would kind of tune her out since it was always kind of hard to keep my focus on what she was doing. So I'm actually at a bit of a stalemate here... I mean I know the catching part... But cooking. Not so much.

"Um... We need to gut it I think?" I actually don't know the procedure for this... I do know that you are supposed to gut fish though. That's something that's familiar... Although really, I am not a cook at all. Of any kind. Simple meals and food I can do, but complicated stuff... Yeah you would have to be incredibly lucky to get anything edible. "Or something... Maybe you gut it after cooking it..?" I really do not know what the procedure for this is.

Neither does Kakashi who eventually drops it down into a pan that I've brought out. We both stare at it not sure what we're supposed to be doing. I hum and tilt my head before looking over towards my twin who's sitting up on a branch and swinging his legs while Rin-chan is below reading a book and absently answering Kurenai's questions.

I hesitate for only a couple moments longer before sucking up my pride and.

"Tomoko-nii what do we do to turn a fish into a meal?" Tomoko's utterly smug face makes me frown even more. "Fine then... We won't-" I am cut off as he jumps and lands walking casually over to us hands crossed over his chest in that way that practically oozed smug pride. Even through the connection all I can feel is pride. "Stop taking so much pleasure in this!" I hiss puffing up furiously.

"Aw come on, don't take it that badly. You asked for the help after all." he sounds so smug and pleased as well. Except that when he looks at the fish and pokes it, he seems almost as bewildered as us. "Fact is though... I spent a decade or two without needing to really eat regularly so... Uhm... I'm not sure what we're supposed to do..." He straightens and shrugs with a sheepish grin that effectively tells all. "I'm sorry but I'm afraid I don't have a clue what to do about this..."

Palm meets face and I sigh rolling my eyes as he cheerfully shoves his hands into his pockets. He is way, way to happy to admit that he can't help really. Also pretty happy to just be wearing pants and probably causing chaos. I glare at him and he simply shrugs before musing absently.

"I'm pretty sure that getting rid of the yucky stuff is part of it though... So gutting it might be a good choice." I sigh and shake my head as he turns and heads off to rejoin Rin. Or scout around, although I'm pretty sure that he's only planning on lurking around just to watch us flail.

I'm actually almost tempted to ask the Assistant Sensei what to do, but then we'd have to untie them.

"We just experiment then?" I offer with an unsure look. "I mean, not necessarily without guidelines... But I think the main thing is... Cut off the head, gut it to remove the more inedible parts and pick out the bones so that there's no possible way for someone to accidentally choke on them..." It almost sounds simple.

In theory I suppose that it is simple-ish. In practice though what happened was that we just confused ourselves more and more before eventually giving up and going with what we had succeeded in doing. Which at some point also included me incomprehensively screaming until I ran off to check some of the snares and recovering at least two rabbits.

We manage to do marginally better with the rabbits than we did with the fish. Which is something I guess. Eventually everyone is back and we get settled with the meal that we've prepared. If it can really be called such. I'm the one who sits near to sensei and attempts to feed them. Which is incredibly awkward, for them since I love messing around and doing the whole here comes the choo choo and other such play feeding actions.

I am humiliation incarnate in that manor. Even if it's all in English it's still enough to make them feel humiliated even more than just being captured by a bunch of six and seven year olds. It's an achievement that I'm once more proud of really, because how many people can say such a thing? How many people can say that they managed such chaos?

Actually considering how much trouble little kids can get into simply by being themselves a lot of people probably could if they remembered that far back. If...

The world is built on what ifs really.

Even here and now this whole situation began as a what if we could pull it off kind of situation. I even absently tell as much to the assistant sensei. Not even taking note of their reaction before I swiftly move back to my feet finished with feeding them. At least for the moment anyway. I stretch a bit and peer up at the leaves overhead.

Maybe this is kind of stupid... But I'm actually feeling incredibly sated for the moment. With a warmth and comfort that comes from just spending time around people and having fun. Relatively anyway.

My head shakes vigorously and I grin before noticing one of the other Academy kids. One of the other groups really. Kakashi moves to join me and I grin brightly, mischief lighting up in my eyes as I met the eyes of all the other kids.

"Hello everyone!" I cheerfully proclaim drawing attention straight to them. Which of course annoys them. "Hey. So uh, you look kind of annoyed... And hungry." I actually frown when I notice that one. "Ne, Tomoko-nii, how many of us actually know how to prepare food, how to rough it?"

"Not enough..." Tomoko has realized the problem as well and he's frowning. As strangely prepared and organized as this exercise and challenge is...

"Gai-san! We need to make sure that everyone knows basic campfire cooking! Snares and traps!" I shout cupping a hand around my mouth. "Can you help round everyone up!" I clap my hands together and while Kakashi glances at me Tomoko nods his head.

"Right, we need to all be able to survive. This is training technically speaking after all." He looks over to Rin and pauses. "Rin-chan, can you help with the basic first aid stuff?" it's quiet but honest and another thing to consider. Basics. We should have done them first really. At least it's not too late to catch up with them I suppose.

Well at least that's something to work on and do then.

Now let's just hope that we haven't forgotten anything else important.

I ignored the sound of the Assistant sensei furiously screaming unintelligible syllables at us. Well okay they probably would be intelligible if any of us really cared to listen but we don't.

So we just sort of stand around ignoring them until the other students arrive and then it's more of a matter of helping them to understand what this is about. Starting from the bottom and beginning with the basics. Which actually is going to include tent and shelter building I take in from the appearance of several of the other kids.

Maybe we should add safe procedures to camp up in the branches of the trees to that list as well considering at times the safest place you can pick to sleep is well off the ground and out of danger. Flash floods and wild/untamed nature can be pretty crippling as well. Also tracking water, and a bit on identifying poisonous fauna and flora... That's pretty important. As soon as I'm sure that everyone is there I take a deep breath and begin.

"So... It would seem that we forgot some stuff. Namely the basics for wilderness survival and camping... Well okay. Let's do our best to rectify that..."

Chapter Text

Chapter Fourteen: Day Three; Building Paranoia, Explosions and Squirrels

Day three begins with an explosion, quite literally. It's startling and unexpected and I'm still only just barely awake as dirt and clumps of grass fly through the air. I'm also lucky enough to have camped myself in a tree for the most part, unlike Tomoko who is now curling over a branch with wide eyes and an expression that practically screams What the Actual Fuck? He's actually not the only person wearing such an expression.

Kakashi, Asuma(who's actually lost his cool), Kurenai and a handful of the civilian kids who're still hanging around. Our Sensei isn't wearing such an expression though so they're ignored. Actually I frown and look at them hanging upside down like a monkey. Their expression is smug and satisfied as if they know exactly what's going on.

"Hey! Tomoko-nii! I think that Sensei knows exactly what's going on. They know what that was!" I point and wave an arm at them. Maintaining my balance through pure luck really. "They know something and..." I pause trailing off when I'm able to see an innocent looking squirrel just sitting there.

Something about it though makes me feel incredibly nervous. It makes me tense and I try desperately to understand where the feeling is coming from. Squirrels, squirrels there was something about squirrels that I read in one of the books back in the clan compound. Squirrels... And explosions...

My eyes suddenly go wide and my face swaps to the picture perfect OH CRAP expression when the realization hits me.

"SQUIRRELS!" I drop from the tree eyes remaining wide and terror in my expression. "EXPLODING SQUIRRELS!" I can feel Tomoko's own realization even as the small chattering creature seems to take notice of us. "HIT THE DECK" it takes barely a second for everyone to follow me to the ground even if my wording used a phrase that is likely foreign to them. I mean I don't know, it's only a possibility considering how different this world is.

Our responses are not a moment late as the squirrel literally explodes, with only minor injuries to anyone.

"I thought that those squirrels were only in training ground forty four..." Kakashi sounds rather breathless, I don't blame him considering the vacuum effect that followed the explosion. We're all a bit breathless. Explosions are dangerous not just for the force behind them going off after all. The following rush back as air moves to fill in the space once more can also cause a fair bit of damage.

"So why are they even here then?" I moan a bit pulling my hands up and over my head whimpering. "Did we miss a memo or something..." I can hear Tomoko's own questions, but can't really be bothered to puzzle them out. Also I frown when I realize that I had once more slipped into English rather than Ikioin. It's incredibly easy for me to do really because I remember an entire lifetime of speaking English...

Well sixteen years anyway. That's a lifetime right?

I shake my head and look around before whistling sharply. Pleased that I actually got whistling down much quicker in this life. To be fair the main reason that I'm whistling is to see catch the attention of everyone else. Also to catch Gai's attention specifically. He'd be a rather large help after all.

Namely in warning the other students who had once more split off from us after our crash course on the basics of camping and roughing it. Which included a fishing lesson from me and Gai. Who knew the proper way to make some basic fishing lines. Extremely basic fishing lines at that. They have lures and bait... Also hooks but I really didn't understand how they worked. Besides my method works for me and that's enough.

Gai almost literally bursts in with Rin right behind. I smile at them but before I can even begin to explain the situation Kakashi does in a flat unimpressed tone of voice.

"For some reason there are exploding squirrels running around the training camp!" I scowl for only a second before nodding my head even as Kakashi continues. "Would you help us warn everyone-"

"Also Rin-chan, we may need to patch some people up." I run a hand through my hair before fiddling a bit with the ear cover on my goggles. "Those buggers can get pretty close before you notice them and then they just kind of explode..." I frown at the thought before muttering under my breath "how they actually continue to survive after blowing themselves up is some kind of serious Pokémon bullshit though... Or some other less realistic anime." Considering that they can survive at least three explosions but the forth kills them completely.

Something, something magical natural energy or chakra. I don't even know.

Both Gai and Rin are entirely willing to help out though. Rin grabbing the medical supplies that we have and first going around and checking those of us right here. Beginning with Me and Tomoko. Neither of us really have anything worse than a couple of new bruises or a scrape though so it's fine and she moves on to Kakashi. Who is also pretty much uninjured aside from bruises and scratches.

Things proceed mostly normally after that. If a bit more cautiously since now we're all on guard for exploding squirrels. Never have I feared such a small creature so much before today. Well except spiders, and some baby snakes but no one can blame me for fearing those particular creatures. Venom is a rather deadly thing after all. Also rather painful in the case of certain strains of it.

I take a deep breath and move around our camp trying to reassure the other students that we'll be fine. After all they wouldn't risk putting us in any serious danger. Also if we actually do get into any serious trouble I stole a few flares. Well okay I would say that I procured them, but I can be honest at least to myself.

Also it's actually much hard to calm everyone down and reassure them when we don't actually know how many of those squirrels there are around. Or where they are. Or why they're actually here instead of in the forest of death. Instead of where they're supposed to be. It's highly intimidating and for those around us who actually are only six and seven it's unsettling. I mean yeah I'm kind of paranoid over it as well, but it's not so unsettling for me.

I still try my best to reassure everyone though.

"It'll be fine. I mean come on, they wouldn't put us in any real danger" I am not the best at this really. I may actually be making things worse if the reaction of the civilian kids is any indication. Eventually feeling kind of dejected I just move up into a tree and sit on the wide bough to watch over the camp.

It's peaceful really and eventually I just relax pulling my legs up and half lying on the branch resting a hand against the cool wood and smiling eyes half closed. It's nice and as the wind blows I can see my hair move a bit around my face. I push up my goggles and take a deep breath holding for mere moments before breathing out in a sigh of relief.

Amongst the paranoia and minor panic a moment of peace like this is absolutely perfect. Especially because it's effectively a cool down and stay calm moment. A nice diversion from everything else and a moment when I can just relax and rest.

I open my eyes back up and leap to my feet landing steady on the branch. Moving around I jump around a bit effectively scouting from above. Finding our set traps I land on the ground with barely any dust. I frown moving to one of them and glaring at the broken and burnt wire. Seems like the squirrels don't enjoy getting caught in any of the snares or snags.

I actually growl a bit dismantling the trap to try and at least salvage some small part of it. I actually pause though when I notice something else. Moving a hand up I trace the scratch across the otherwise smooth trunk of the tree in front of me. What kind of creature creates such a clean mark. It looks more like the work of some kind of weapon, or a scyther but those don't exist in this particular world.

At least I don't think that they do. I feel that awkward and nervous twist in my stomach and look around trying to recall everything that they told us about this trip... Something, something practice for ambush, practice for camping out... Practice mainly. But there was something else. It's supposed to be effectively training us after all.

Even if I switched up the program and decided to screw around make it a little bit more of a challenge. A game really.

Yet, even if the mark looks man made, there's something just slightly off about it that makes me stop and take another look. Another feel, rough edges a little bit of leaking sap and it actually doesn't feel quite smooth enough to be some kind of weapon. At least none of the weapons that I'm familiar with anyway... Maybe a jutsu. Someone might have been practicing. I chew on my lower lip a bit in thought before eventually just shrugging it off. I'll let everyone else know about it anyway. Even if it's nothing that's only proper procedure.

I quickly finish packing up the rest of the track and hop along to the next one to pack it up as well. Also to check around for anything else that stands out as suspicious. Along the way of course I would have to trip over one of those damnable squirrels and with a yelp I end up flying. It's not exactly the most fun thing either.

Kind of leaves me feeling a bit sun burnt really. I wince upon my rough landing shoulder striking the ground in just the right way to really hurt. I actually have to muffle a scream with a sleeve because I am still super freaking sensitive to pain and pressure and everything. Sure I don't have to deal with it so much, but my sensitivity was one of those things that followed me into this new life.

Sensitivity to the chakra in the air around me, sensitivity to it's relatively smooth paths and flow within my body and of course the sensitivity to my very blood and heartbeat. The even rise and fall of my chest as I breathed in and out, the rushing feeling of my blood spreading oxygen around.

I never stopped feeling it, even if it changed just enough for it to be different.

So slamming into the ground and jostling my shoulder in such a way hurts a lot more than anyone else probably would understand. Instead of screaming though I just wind up hissing and moving one arm to clutch at the area and try to relieve at least a small amount of the pain. Which has spread through the whole area really and I can feel the beginning of a headache approaching.

Also tears. Never fun to feel them sneaking out past my control and down the sides of my face. I crouch over a bit and close my eyes gritting my teeth and the spreading pain. I'll probably have to check in with Rin, and maybe get the others to untie the Assistant Sensei for a bit just to make sure that I haven't seriously damaged myself. It doesn't feel as bad as any of the pain from my previous life. But that is really not saying much at all considering pain day in and day out just can not really be compared to.

I force myself back to my feet and shake a bit. Gingerly I try to move the arm, but nope it hurts even just to move it a small bit.

So with a wince I just leave it for the moment and instead try to figure out exactly where in the training ground I landed relative to our camp. A harder observation than one would think because every single tree looks pretty much the same.

It's like when you end up in a pine forest. Or watch people go looking for a Christmas tree. Why does it matter because all of them are more or less identical until they get decorated. How long could it possibly take to find the perfect one they're all the exact same.

I shake my head rapidly to get those thoughts out of my mind. They don't matter at right now. What matters is finding a way back to camp in a relatively quick time so that I can find out what the hell I've managed to do to myself with my poor landing.

Also, I'll have to note that down for the future. Work on landing skills. Maybe Kakashi will help me, he's really good at acrobatics after all.

Still that's not entirely relevant while I'm stuck in the middle of the training ground with little to orientate myself with aside from the identical trees. So I'm lost, in one of the training grounds... And it's not number forty four. Which okay sounds rather bad really. Of course there's not really much that won't sound bad in certain contexts and getting lost anywhere tends to be most of them.

Especially with my lack of supplies. Injured and lost without proper supplies, sounds like one of those survive this shows that I occasionally watched when bored enough. There's also something else that this sounds like but I really can't be bothered trying to figure out what it is. Probably some trope from TV Tropes.

I don't really know and really I can not actually bring myself to properly care about the point when lost. When in pain with a throb in my shoulder and shooting through the back. It reminds me faintly of my previous life. Of pain filled days and nights and seeing the chiropractor on a rather regular basis. Something that no sixteen year old should really be getting used to and familiar with actually. Considering how they are supposed to be rebellious and full of recklessness... At least according to media anyway.

I shake my head to try and focus myself. It is really not the time to be thinking about such ridiculous things.

Not really. So I force myself to begin to move. Basically I just pick a direction and go with it. It's not like Kakashi or Gai won't come looking for me at some point either out of worry or just plain annoyance. They can be relied on for stuff like that really. It is actually rather relieving... Of course otherwise Tomoko will probably track me down in his own overprotective worry. He can be like that at times. Especially in certain circumstances and around particular people. Rin usually keeps him from doing anything too stupid though...

Thinking about him though reminds me of our link though. It hasn't faded, it hasn't strengthened... Still the same as it's always been. It's enough to send a small poke of my emotions and pain down though. To let him know that I'm hurt. Panic, worry and comfort streams right back as well as questioning protectiveness. I can only send back confusion and the sense of loss... Also wariness because there's something else just faintly off. The image of a squirrel pops into my mind and after a brief second of deliberation I send that through the connection as well.

I can almost hear my twins huff of exasperation in the following emotions. He is bemused but at the same time annoyed. Almost as if saying only you... Which to be fair there is some real bullshit that only we can get into just by existing really. It might be due to our status as reincarnations but I would not bet on that.

I just think that the entire Uchiha Clan seems to attract trouble. I mean how often do you walk down the street only to see one of your cousins taped to the door. Or watch someone fall through the roof of their house after finally finishing fixing it. Or somehow lose half the case files that they had finally completed...

And wasn't that a fiasco for the entirety of the Clan. So much for organization. At least the illusion seems to work for the most part and the civilians still believe that we're efficient police. But still trying to keep things under control is an exercise in futility. I mean seriously crime rates are nothing to sneeze at. Especially when it comes to civilian crime verses shinobi crime. Which also gives me a bit of a headache to even begin to think about it.

At least it's something to distract me from being lost I guess. That's when a sound reaches my ears. I pause and tilt my head listening again. Footsteps. Heavier than my own, heavier than any of my classmates. Also, they're not subtle at all, not even attempting to be subtle...

But they are not what I'm listening for. There's another noise. A familiar noise that just doesn't make sense in the position that I'm in. The buzz and hum and faint cracking of static. Like a corrupted video feed.

I look around trying to locate the source of the noise, the footsteps do not really bother me after all... I've heard them before really. They're familiar in that way that tells me that it wouldn't be too much of a problem if I ran into the owner of them. Not that it's possible to anyway considering that they're a familiar conjuring of my mind... Across two lives in fact.

The static on the other hand... It reminds me of a certain eldrich abomination. And some of the things that they were associated with. Also my mind automatically brings up some of the reports of missing children in and around Konohagakure... And even across the rest of Hi no Kuni. Even the Daimyo had sort of dumped this case on the Uchiha. The few reports that I had read had all left me with the sense of familiarity and foreboding. A sense that I knew exactly what this was and why it was happening.

"Slenderman, Slenderman dressed in darkest suit and tie... Slenderman, Slenderman you most certainly shall die..." Voice barely above a whisper the familiar words of a haunting tune float on the breeze. I raise my head fringe falling as my goggles are lowered and I try to ignore the building static noise and the sense of something watching. "Slenderman, Slenderman his branching arms are for collecting. Slenderman, Slenderman his face is empty of expressing. Slenderman, Slenderman he won't let you say goodbye. Slenderman, Slenderman you most certainly shall die..." it's like an old nursery rhyme really except more haunting. A figure in the corner of my eye. Fog rolling and I take a deep breath closing my eyes.

If I am to just disappear here I will accept that fate.

"OBITO!" I jump at the sound of my name and the fog and feeling of being watched seems to burst leaving me rather disorientated and with a headache. I groan a hand moving to clutch the side of my head as I peer at Rin and Tomoko. They both look kind of worried, and relieved all at the same time.

"Are you okay?" Tomoko asks before allowing his voice to lower and switching to English "What was that... I saw someone, or something standing there reaching..."

"I... Don't know. Slenderman?" I kind of hesitate because what was that. At least the static sound was gone and I could think at least a touch more clearly once more. "It seemed kind of familiar in that vein... But that's an old internet mytho from my previous world." I stop there though because The Slenderman Mythos had always been an alternate reality game of sorts. So I don't even really know if this is plausible or whether there's some screwball dimensional physics and differences in play here.

I mean seriously the multiverse is a rather terrifying place when you think about it. Situations like these. Reincarnation into different universes entirely, I mean seriously it was a pretty popular plot for fictional stories...

I stop that trail of thought right there because it would likely lead to something of a meltdown as I question my own existence.

So I just kind of assume that maybe this universe has problems with such eldrich abominations. I mean Slenderman is only one of many if you take into account the extended Fear Universe...

Fear Mythos... Something to do with Fear and fears anyway.

"Or old something... More of an alternate reality game really." I shrug my shoulders and offer a strained smile at my twin. Before wincing at the pull that gives my shoulder. Rin quickly catches the wince and she's immediately right there checking me over. Gently holding my arm in a position that doesn't hurt and poking at the area of injury. It's kind of weird actually.

But at the same time it's a comfort and familiarity that I appreciate. I mean I don't actually interact with Rin all that much on my own, she's Tomoko's friend not mine. I interact more with Kakashi and Gai. So just letting her take over with this is kind of unique. Kind of pleasant and comforting and she's so gentle. So careful and even her hardest pokes don't really make me yelp, they make me wince sure, but not yelp. Is it any wonder that she wants to be a Iryonin when she actually graduates. Is it any wonder that even now when we're only six and seven she's already showing shades of being an amazing medic when she's older.

I find myself smiling at her. Bright and vibrant, accepting and comforting. I don't even know, I just find myself smiling at her. She smiles right back and there's a rising feeling in me that I just can't quite place. A kind of flutter and happiness that is both as familiar as it's not. It reminds me of the feelings that I experienced when I first met my younger siblings each for the first time.

Cordell, Freedom, the Twins. This is the same flutter and happiness. I feel a swell of another more pressing feeling as well and then almost automatically I breath out the sentence that's in my heart in this moment.

"I will protect you forever!" My eyes are probably shining with my feelings, with my passion and my promise. "Tomoko-nii I approve of her becoming honorary family." I pause before adding "And any other feelings that may eventually develope between you as puberty begins."

"Don't remind me of that now Obito!" Tomoko crosses his arms over his chest and glowers at me while I kind of smirk. "Because really that's not something that I really want to haunt my dreams at night... Not with the endless dreams of doctors and appointments." I can hear the smirk in his voice and lower my eye lids just a touch in that smug warning look that clearly tells him that he is stepping pretty close to dangerous territory. Except the dreams in general are dangerous territory for the both of us.

Confusing as they are not, winding our lives and our pasts together to the point where occasionally we wake up a bit mixed up. At least the worst of them seemed to have broken even. I mean as far as either of us can tell really, we don't really talk about them because it's weird. Like the 'twin link' stuff best just left untouched and untampered with. I mean we at least use the connection at times, to reassure one another and send images of random stuff but that's it.

That's the most that we can really do with it.

The most that we would ever want to do with it really.

I mean it works for us and that's the best that anyone could really hope for at this point. I mean Tomoko died at some point in his thirties in his previous life and meanwhile I was yanked from my own body at the age of sixteen. Neither of us had very stable situations of living either.

He was a freaking Nukenin apparently the enemy of the entire Great Shinobi Nations, possibly the world.

I was a sickly child with issues that come from everything. List a pain and I probably experienced it at least once... Minus organ failure, broken bones and other things in that vein... Also diseases that I was immunized against.

So neither of us really need the connection. It's a comfort though... Even if it causes some problems such as the dreams...

I cough and shake my head drawing myself back to the present. Back to focusing on the forest and Rin and being completely calm as she eventually sighs and explains that we should get back to the camp so she can tend to my shoulder properly. Which really means wrapping it up so that it's braced and then getting me to sleep. Which I'm not all that keen on.

At least it is something though so I grudgingly concede to the point and allow them to lead me back to our camp. I allow it because it actually feels kind of nice.

And really who doesn't like being tended to by people who care?

Especially when they're used to experiencing problems and pain...

It reminds me of my original life actually.

Chapter Text

Chapter Fifteen: Night Three; Golden Eyes and Black Hearts

I don't actually get that much sleep that night... Not really trapped with images of golden eyes glittering in a face made completely of shadows. A fanged grin. A boy with bright sunshine hair and eyes that showed the sky with the mark of the fox on his face.

But the worst part is the whispers, the echoes of it all being my fault. That nobody cares and nobody would miss me if I were to just disappear. That I'm a freak, just making it up... Nothing is wrong, nothing is wrong it's all in your head.

So I keep waking and drifting off caught between being conscious and unconscious. Caught between the waking world and the images and voices that wait in the dreams. Images and voices drawn from subconscious and conscious fears colliding. From old memories that have been upset by this whole situation. And, the image of a pale and blank face. No eyes, nose, ears or mouth...

Clearly I am still stuck on the experience from the day before. Ringing static in my head and a sense of someone, or something watching even if it shouldn't be able to.

I shiver and curl around myself jostling my bandages and injured shoulder a fair bit. It's still dark, and the moon is absent from the sky... Obviously it's a new moon night. But there aren't that many stars visible in the sky either and it gives a sense of hopelessness. The sense that we're in the middle of a horror game and I find my eyes scanning over everyone who's present. Even our tied up sensei, just to be sure that no one is hurt. Just to make sure that there are no phantom injuries just appearing on anyone.

It is as much a relief as it isn't that there are not any such phantom injuries appearing. In the darkness I can see phantoms flicking through the trees. Hear voices on the wind, whispered threats and discouraging remarks. Footsteps and phantom laughter of other children. Broken and forgotten children. The children snatched away and stolen by Slenderman.

It makes me close my eyes just to not see faces in the shadows. Even if closing my eyes brings over images to mind. Images from my previous life. My twin's previous life, all sorts of things that are just as uncomfortable. At least these figments don't make me want to get up and stalk around the camp like a pale ghost flickering between justified paranoia and the need to just have something in my hands to defend myself with. Even if it's only just a stick. I can feel my hands curl and I can feel my senses sharpen as I become more aware of the night time sounds. More aware of those around me. The light breeze brushing over my skin, the crackle of the energy in the air. The faint warmth of my fellow Academy Student's chakra even as my own is bundled tightly within me. Removed from my limbs making me feel heavy and more tired.

I take a deep breath feeling the biting chill of the night air. Holding it for just long enough before breathing back out. I repeat the process several times before I finally feel calm enough to open my eyes back up and look out over across my companions. My classmates and friends and family in a way I guess. At least when it comes to Rin, and Gai... Kakashi is still more of a friendly acquaintance who occasionally drops by just to bug us. Or brag. Or you know to be there as if he has something to prove by hanging around us.

I take another deep breath of the biting air eyes softening and kind of drooping since there doesn't seem to be any immediate danger that I can see. There does not seem to be anything there that would worry me. And yet there's something in the corner of my eye. I turn my head just a touch to try and see it better and catch the faint glimmer of gold.

My breath catches and I jolt to full awareness entirely focused on that small glimmer of two pin pricks of gold in the shadows. A dripping grin fills my head along with a yucky invasive tar flowing over my body under my clothing and in my veins. It's wrong and dangerous and it should not be here at all. Not at this time. Not now, not while we're this young. I can hear growling and it takes me a handful of seconds to realize, it's coming from me. I stand up on my branch eyes narrowing and brow furrowing lips twisting into a snarl in the direction of the other eldrich abomination hanging around.

One that doesn't actually have a clear name in my mind. That I just don't know much about aside from small snippets from nightmares and memories that my twin gave me. The images that come from the link. Hands reflexively twitch and I continue to kind of puff up defensively focus almost entirely on the dripping shadow creature.

It's a blob really, the only solid and permanent features those yellow gold eyes. Which meet my own even as it splits part of itself open in a grin that only makes me even more defensive. That only makes me even more furious and made and kind of frightened that this thing is here. That it's lurking.

"Back to hell with you!" I hiss through my teeth, the noise barely carrying in the air but still enough for an abomination such as itself to hear. I can see how it's grin widens and I want to attack it...

Except I know that would be the worst decision ever. It's a monster from who knows where. It's not natural to this world. Not really, the way that it's amorphous and kind of blobby but still able to shift itself into the faint shape of a man and hold it. The memories and feelings that it can and will take control of my body, and just the general unnatural feeling that I get from it. That the very land itself broadcasts to me.

Animals are completely silent, scared of it and avoiding the area. The trees are also less noisy, their leaves conspicuously still even in the light breeze. With little to no noise. Even the usual pulse from the grass is withdrawn. Whatever this thing is it's not welcome here. Unlike Slenderman who's a Guardian to the Forest, guardian to nature and one of Nature's warriors(at least in certain instances and circumstances) this thing is against nature.

It's not welcome here at all and that makes me puff up even more, allowing my chakra to unwind and simply flow. Drawing small pieces of that energy to my hands and lighting them up with that oh so familiar and comforting glow. To sort of give off my own ominous presence in return.

Slenderman would even be against this creature... A monster they may be, but at least they have some fair excuses if you look at it from a different angle and tilt it sideways and upside down. I mean hey, there's also the fact that old Slenderman was originally associated with the laughter of children not fear.

This thing on the other hand though has nothing. Because even nature rejects it. Even nature seems to shrink back and want absolutely nothing to do with it. It makes me hiss and growl, and just puts me on guard. Because I can feel the world, I can synch just that touch with the world and draw comfort in the peace around me. This thing though disturbs that peace and makes it feel yucky and perverted. Invasive and wrong, so I lash out in this small way. Defensive and guarded making sure that I don't expose myself even in a small way to whatever it is.

Those golden eyes haunt my worst dreams after all. And I am not happy to meet them in reality. Not in the least.

It keeps grinning. And then it moves. I can feel it moving getting closer with a sense of glee and amusement and I tense as it is right there in front of me. So close that if I moved even an inch I would be touching it. I blink, body stilling and chakra light shutting off completely as I defensively pull all my chakra back and narrow my eyes at the creature.

"Go away. You're not wanted here. Not by the forest and not by any of us!" I hiss the words falling from my mouth in English. It seems to have more of an impact that way. Twisting in the air and remaining there with power between us. A silent battle of wills even as it's grin widens and then someone else moves. Before I can even blink it's gone and I crumble. Just barely managing to catch myself struggling to truly breathe.

Pain crushing and strangling winds its way through my body and I tremble limbs suddenly made of only water and no bones. Limp like soggy noodles even as a pain echoes behind my eyes and shoots through my skull rattling hollowly in the background. It makes me whimper and I hug my arms to my self trying to catch myself again. To recover my sanity and sense of safety. But that encounter was just a touch too close for any sort of comfort.

The worst part though is that nature still hasn't calmed down. Hasn't settled back into its usual patterns. That thing is still hanging around watching, waiting and contemplating. My eyes squeeze shut and I desperately suck in another breath of air the biting chill a small comfort. My panic builds and eventually I send it down the link trying to awaken my twin and get at least a small form of comfort from him.

It works... Perhaps a touch too well as he shoots up screaming and twisting trying to brush something off himself. Its probably a spider bed dream... At least judging by that reaction. Of course his dramatics mean that almost the entirety of the rest of the camp is up in seconds. Many speaking complaints, a handful greeting the pre-dawn with swearing and in the case of Gai cheerfully booming that it's such a youthful time to be awake and then using it to his advantage to get ahead with his training.

Kakashi, is simply unimpressed. Sitting and watching with bored eyes. Until he catches sight of me, still curled over, still in the midst of an almost panic attack... Or Anxiety Attack... I don't really know the differences between the two. I only know that they're both incredibly similar, and that people don't understand.

Still caught in the icy fingers of terror shivering despite the fact that it's not really even all that cold.

I squeeze my eyes shut. I don't want, don't want to see. I don't want to break here. I don't want to have a breakdown here where it will be noted down and monitored. Where people will begin to ask questions over my mental state and health. Where people will dig. I don't want people to dig, even if what they find will only be inconclusive it will be something. Mental breaks from reality and instability really. Anxiety and Panic in situations where there should be none, paranoia... Which okay, most grown and adult shinobi have shades and mixes of all that.

PTSD, really.

Since that's what it truly is. Mine isn't, or at least not quite that. I mean I don't even really know honestly. I just know that it would not be good to have a break down. Not now, and not ever really.

I take another deep breath struggling past the pressure and the feeling that I almost couldn't. I almost can't, I suck in another breath ignoring the burning as though I were breathing in water. Ignoring the hidden watcher. Ignoring the absence of feeling in the air around me. No animals, no breeze, no moon. Tonight really is rather ominous if you take a step back and think of it in that context. No movement, except from the lurking shadows. I launch that image to my twin and he stills. He stills before looking around, trying to find the shadowy being that's still watching us.

Still there right at the edge of my senses.

My eyes snap back open and I hiss. Hiss because I no longer want to just sit and feel that. I can not just sit and feel that and the pain and everything else. It all sort of washes away fading into the background of my focus as I primarily move to focus on the shadow still lingering. All my senses sharpening and focusing, chakra streamlining and sharpening within my body. I can feel it in my very soul almost.

It. Is. Not. Supposed. To. Exist.

It's not welcomed by the very fabric of this world. Rejected by nature, which means that in this case it would be better off completely destroyed and gone. Welcomed in fact. But at the same time, my chakra my senses when I have them boosted to such a degree and sharply focused on it. They scream in capital letters: RUN AWAY! Which actually causes me to drop it all and curl once more eyes wide and pupils dilating.

Tomoko is right there along with Kakashi, both of them radiating a mixture of confusion and concern for me. How do I even react to this? How am I supposed to react at all? That creature is still around and darkly amused by my reactions. I want to run, I want to get away. But I can't because no one else is aware of it's presence. No one else can really tell that it is there and how would I even explain it. How could I explain it? I can feel tears burning at the edges of my eyes and close them taking another deep breath and feeling that familiar pain in my chest as anxiety and panic builds.

As it gets harder to keep myself from falling apart.

Rin and Gai are looking at us. I don't even need to open my eyes to know that because I can feel their staring, I can feel as everyone slowly begins to realize, to notice that something is going on. Something weird, something different and strange. I draw in another breath trying to block out the feeling of our watcher...

Except now I can hear another familiar thing. The footsteps are back. Heavy and solid, with no owner since they're just phantoms. An auditory hallucination brought about due to paranoia or who really knows. Still as familiar as ever though. Tomoko frowns beside me and it sort of slides over me in a numb way that he is probably able to hear them as well. That he can probably hear the same footsteps that I can. Of course he's not able to just leave them alone and snaps to attention looking around with narrowed eyes for the intruder.

I just ignore it. I'm actually well practiced in ignoring things really... Except something is throwing me off.

Kakashi seems to be hearing the footsteps as well if his expression is anything to go by. Which is confusing. Because... It's just a hallucination right? Right? Because if it's not then what the hell is it that's causing the footsteps and how has it followed me across two lives?

"Kakashi?" My voice is barely above a whisper. He can only just hear me. "You can hear them to?" he frowns at me, I can tell by the way his eyes slant.

"Yes. What is causing them..." he tilts his head and listens for a few seconds longer before continuing. "They don't sound quite human."

I'm not sure if that is a relief or a worry. I frown though before looking around, if it's not a hallucination, and it's not human... The only thing that really comes to mind that it could possibly be considering the timing and everything else...

"Yūrei maybe... Possibly an Akuma though." I shrug my shoulders. It's never harmed me, or turned up visible, and even if it is following me around it doesn't seem dangerous. At least it's never shown itself to be dangerous. "Maybe some sort of Kanshisha Seishin." I grin a bit at the thought even if it's a left field kind of opinion. "At least now that it's decided to come closer the other eldrich abomination is gone..." and it is. The shadow is gone. Even looking around where it last was hiding it's not there. No longer occupying the space that it had been.

I'm not sure whether that worries me or not. Because I wanted it to disappear, I wanted it to leave. But at least while it was there I knew where it was and what it was doing.

The chill of the air makes me shiver and I kind of lean against Kakashi. Before my eyes dart up to the clear sky. Kakashi tenses at my action but he doesn't pull away or anything, he just gets a fair bit uncomfortable. I don't entirely blame him because personal space is a pretty big thing. But still, I can't really find it in myself to care really. Because I need the contact right in this moment. A small grounder to reality as everything seems to break and bend.

I take another deep breath. Pain easing in my body, my shoulder faintly stinging and the stirring of static in my head and ears. Slenderman must be fairly close. The man hiding in the trees. How fitting that he resides here. In Hi no Kuni near Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

"You know, the tall man's only doing his best right. How many of those disappearing were abused, how many were hurting in need of help?" I wonder aloud not entirely focused as my hands splay out and reach into the air energy dancing over my fingertips. "How many needed saving. Slenderman was really only doing his original job and purpose if you think about it... Taking them somewhere safer. Even if they'll never come back... I wonder if that's why he's here... Do any of us need saving? Broken and battered... Do we need help?" I don't know who I'm talking to. I don't know why I'm thinking about this now...

But, it is a rather shocking thing to realize. In a way. Both Tomoko and I would actually fall into the category of children who need help. Severely messed up due to our experiences from a previous lifetime. Severely messed up with nightmares and paranoia, problems that can't be seen on the surface.

So is it any wonder that Slenderman would show up.

Would hear and see. Responding to protect and shield even if it would only lead to us disappearing. What is he associated with again?

"Forests, fire... Children. Children's laughter... Things forgotten and things found. Static and technology, memory... Interesting isn't it?"

"Obito what are you talking about?" I look down at my twin, his voice drawing me back from my spacing out and I shake my head. "Is it those disappearances that everyone at the Station are puzzling over?" He asks and I nod my head before tilting it just a touch. "Well stop okay, that's silly."

"No it's not. It's more... Ominous really." I correct standing up and just kind of dropping out of the tree. "I mean they're familiar... Or haven't you noticed that?" I tilt my head, curious because has he noticed or hasn't he.

"I guess... But that's just a legend. A piece of mythology right?" He sounds unsure, voice wavering just a bit and I can feel the curiosity from Kakashi, Rin, and Gai. Everyone else has more or less fallen back to sleep. Mostly anyway. I'm not actually sure with some of them. Some people after all are incredibly good at pretending to be asleep when they're actually still awake. Like the old game sleeping tigers... Dead fish... Play dead. I was always good at that.

"Maybe... But maybe not. After all, don't all legends have their roots deep in reality?" I ask looking up at the sky again. "He lurks in the forests after all." a small subtle smile pulls at the edge of my mouth. "Hides in the trees and blends in the fog. Is associated with missing children in particular. Also fire..." I actually pause there and something about that strikes me as kind of funny.

So I find myself shaking a bit with half suppressed humor. It's not really funny but at the same time. I can't help but find it funny in that twisted way. I'm probably incredibly stressed out, nearing levels verging on hysterical. It is all just so funny in that horrible way that says that it is only funny because my fear responses are switching off for the moment. All logical responses and reasoning gone as I deal with the stress crashing down over me.

From our watcher, to the phantom footsteps and Slenderman himself hovering around in the backdrop of the forest is it any wonder that something needed to break at some point? Not really.

So my shaking turns from laughter to tears in seconds and I collapse hands flat on the ground, Tomoko by my side tears trailing down my face to drip down to the ground. It's messy and embarrassing but ultimately a real relief for my mental state. Everything spills for a few moments, and I wipe uselessly at my eyes several times. Tomoko is at least trying his best in his own awkward way rubbing small circles on my back. While Kakashi is standing off to the side, everything in his posture screaming awkward insecurity and a complete lack of any idea how to even respond to my display.

It makes me give a watery chuckle that sounds more like a sob.

"Stop being awkward 'Kashi... Jus' come join the comfort pile..." I mumble kind of partially reaching for him. Because something about the situation makes me feel as though perhaps he needs a hug as well. As if I'm not the only one who's reaching the limit.

Of course, considering pride he's not likely to just let that happen. He is rather good at keeping himself separate after all. Keeping to himself with his feelings chained down. It kind of terrifies me actually because if it builds up enough. If it reaches that point, Kakashi is going to break and no one will be able to put him back together. No one, it's not so easy to repair yourself after a complete breakdown. I know that enough from my previous life.

From when I started to shut off because I wasn't entirely able to handle everything going on. From the day to day pains of my life, to hearing almost every doctor call my problems conjured up. Pretend, and due to anxiety and stress, not real but still real. Which still makes my head hurt a bit actually because how can something be both real and not at the same time?

"Come on 'Kashi... This will help you to feel better as well." I say finally managing to snag him by at least one arm. "Cuddle piles are good for that... And animals." Except that we don't really have any animals around that we can just really snuggle with. Not that I would entirely want any to be around. Just spending time with the people who I care about and who care about me would be enough I think. Just being here with them, it would be enough. It has to be enough.

Even as the lingering traces of the night bleed into the dawn and things finally start to move along.

It's just enough to spend the remainder of my breakdown wrapped in a cocoon of warmth that the chakra of both Kakashi and Tomoko provide automatically.

It's more than enough.

Chapter Text

Chapter Sixteen: Day Four; Please Stop You Are Scaring Me

As the day wears on we kind of all try to forget the rather embarrassing display that was the morning. Or at least both Kakashi and Tomoko ignore it. I'm perfectly fine with just moving straight on to actually working out what the hell we're actually supposed to be doing on this camping trip. Considering that at this point our little capture the sensei flag game has pretty much short circuited and everyone is just sort of hanging around. Milling around really. I do not have any idea what we could do.

Fire starting has already been covered, trapping, did we do marking? Tree scouting and learning how to identify animal tracks? Or would those be worries for later on?

I frown before simply discarding the idea. Animal tracks are some of the more annoying things. Besides, identifying animals in that way is kind of like playing the which Pokémon is that depending on their footprints. Thanks Mystery Dungeon.

I shake my head rapidly catching a bit of attention, and a snort from my twin as he picks up on the lingering thought trail in my mind. It's annoying and I shoot him a small look before simply spinning around and overlooking the entire group. There's only really three more days of the trip left.

So, I don't even know what needs to be covered. Who taught what really... I actually pause before snapping my head to the side and calling to the others.

"Ne, Kakashi-kun, Gai-san, Rin-chan, Tomoko-nii, Kurenai-chan, Asuma-san!" Considering that this is a training camp effectively. "What needs to be taught? We covered most of the basics I know, but what else... Is there anything we missed... Tree marking and navigation, safety procedures?" I wonder trying desperately to figure out something. I just know that we're missing something after all. This trip was supposed to last for a week.

"Identifying an ambush, and possibly setting one up!" Tomoko offers running a hand over the back of his head as I proceed to bite my lip wearing away at it. "Tracking should probably be at least started... But the most I would know about that is scratch marks and following thread."

"Footprints, animal tracks, identifying waste, setting up a shelter and how to check a cave for any occupants aside from bats..." at some point we seem to have switched to English but it is much easier to discuss with, although I do switch right back to Ikioin to suggest something. "Maybe a few quick medical tricks for times of need. Setting up a sling and making a brace. Identifying shock and blood loss..." I frown because there was another thought there but I lost it somewhere between my brain and my mouth. "Identifying tails... No, there was something else that I was thinking of..."

"What about a series of edible plants. We should also cover some of the more poisonous ones." Kakashi to the rescue. I almost sigh in relief to hear his words and brightly grin at him.

"I could probably help with at least identifying danger signs. For predators." Asuma speaks up with a shrug. "Although I can't say how rough or accurate it would be."

"At least it will be rough enough!" I say with a grin and Kurenai laughs a bit while I hear Tomoko's sigh from my side. "Gai, we could do some more of the fishing lessons, maybe also a bit on water purification and mineral deposits..." I frown though. "Not that there will be much relevance to minerals but hey who knows."

"More campfire cooking." Tomoko says cutting in with the statement in English, he's frowning. "We should at least do a bit more of that, both with the herbs, general meal preparation and of course for smoke minimalization."

"Right, so campfire safety?" I look around the group. It seems like we have mostly hammered out what we need to do. "Ne Kurenai-chan, what about subtle area effect genjutsu... Or small chakra tricks? Things to play on the mind. Throwing off people..." that seems important in my mind so I voice it. She frowns and seems to consider it.

"Safe ground, flash floods, how to identify dangers... Obvious verses innocuous dangers." Tomoko lists off on his fingers and I frown.

"We need a list!" I say with an air of finality before frowning. "Also a general knowledge of who will teach what... Kakashi-kun is a Hatake so... Maybe tracking would be more of his area of expertise. Kurenai-chan will be handling the genjutsu... Rin-chan medical stuff, Asuma-san can handle identifying the natural flora. Gai-san will be in charge of the fishing group. Tomoko-nii will be handling the cooking, along with making sure that the water that we're drinking is pure. That leaves me with Ambush, and identifying suspicious movements..." I actually have to furrow my brow at that. "Does that work out alright?"

"Yosh!"

"It certainly seems to." Kakashi shrugs and straightens up. "So now we just need to organize everyone else." I look over to all the other students and frown.

"How are we going to do that Tomoko-nii? They don't really seem to care all that much to really listen to us. Not properly anyway." I rub at the back of my neck beginning to feel a familiar twitch there. A tingling and lingering sense of being watched and observed. "Also are you sure that cameras are not a wide spread thing here... Because I feel as though they might still have a spreading..." considering how useful they could be.

Also how many are there of us filling in the 'teaching' positions? Kakashi, Gai, Tomoko, Kurenai, Rin, Asuma, Me... That's seven. Huh..? That number keeps following me really. Main characters in my stories, ancient weapons of power, small stuff... It kind of keeps having relevance to me.

I shake my head before frowning and resting a fist beneath my chin in thought. This is a puzzle that needs solving. Do we let them pick and choose maybe? I actually don't know how that would work out. Chaotic probably. But it would solve at least part of the problem. I mean there's seven of us stepping up to the 'teaching' plate. And maybe forty odd of us all together. Which doesn't exactly break even and makes me wonder how only a single teacher/sensei was supposed to keep us all under at least a moderate illusion of control.

Well if we had let them.

Which we didn't considering it's still us students in charge of this trip pretty much.

Well, as much as a bunch of six and seven year olds can be in charge of something. Mostly it's barely organized chaos really. Just barely organized chaos. I am serious about that really, since above all else we don't really have any sort of organization. Not in the form of a proper camp or set up, or anything.

Which is probably something that we should buckle down on. Disorganization and lack of preparation can be seriously deadly. Even for people who aren't shinobi. I mean seriously, evacuation plans people. We should work on those.

"Safety and organization... We're a bit lackluster in those areas right now. If we were adults..."

"This situation would be certain death." Tomoko intoned from my side having come to pretty much the same realization.

"We're doomed currently Kakashi. Doomed. We need more organization, and teamwork, if we were in the middle of a war... This rag tag group would be lost!" I whine hands moving to tug at my hair as I begin to fall apart in a panic. "And considering that the peace around us feels incredibly temporary... I think that we need to fix that..." I frow and then a fake smile kind of falls across my face. "There are seven of us for lessons. Around forty students altogether... If we want an almost even split then we'd have five others each, but that's uneven because we don't quite reach forty two do we?" I actually pause with a weird expression in my confusion. "DO we Tomoko, are there forty two of us here? Because if there are then yeah... Six people per group equals seven groups, that's counting us... Otherwise I don't actually know how to clearly split it... Two groups of five with the other's having six?"

"Calm down Obito-chan. Calm down." Tomoko says waving his hands in a way that is supposed to pacify me. It just kind of stirs me up even more. "Obito-chan. Please calm down, it's going to be fine. We will figure something out." He actually has to grab me before I begin to panic and flail even more. "It'll be fine. Okay, look see, fine. Everyone's alive and we're not in-"

"I'm going to cause a war in the future... The timeline... Time and Space... Multiverse... And leveling out, Set points..." I pull myself away from my twin and clutch at my head trying to calm down because this is not a good time to have a breakdown. Well, no time is a good time but right now in particular is a rather bad time to have a break from reality. From this reality. "Our watcher is the one from the nightmares... And then there's Slenderman, who's not in any of them... My life or yours. You still haven't told me who you were, but there are hints..." I take a deep breath and then hug myself.

There are hints... And this situation has kind of thrust several of them right into the line of my sight. Into the forefront of my mind, along with Kakashi and Rin.

Team, Team something... Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin... A bridge and a completed mission with one casualty... Who wasn't dead. I have no clear idea on how my mind went from panicking over numbers to panicking over that but it has. It did... And now I curl into myself hands fisting and tugging at my hair. Frantic and panicked.

"The timeline balances itself with danger and safety... War and destruction with peace and prosperity... One Nukenin is always substituted for another because Equivalent Exchange comes in..." I keep jumping from one language to another in my panic swapping words out and trying to calm down except failing. "Numbers mean nothing... Lessons, how many would survive anyway? Chaos Theory dictates one thing... But other theories then come in and everything slides into place. Is the world stuck in a loop?"

"Obito-kun?" I hear Rin's worried call and shudder an image of her bloodied and still smiling filling my head. She could be mistaken for sleeping if not for the fact that there's a huge hole in her chest.

"Nope. Nope, Nope!" I laugh a bit mad trying to find some way to cool off the hysteria. Considering these are Tomoko-nii's memories though, that is a lot harder than it should be. Even he is getting twitchy though. "You most certainly shall die. You most certainly shall die. You most certainly shall die. You most certainly shall die." Oh hello the Slenderman song, and welcome back... Along with the static in my head and a lack of straight thinking. I know that I'm terrifying those around me, around us. But currently.

"OBITO-CHAN!" I jump and stare with wide eyes at my twin, he looks rather scared as well. Scared as if I were about to just disappear, which I very well might considering how chaotic my thoughts are currently swirling. "Please stop... You are scaring me... And everyone else." His voice drops down into a whisper. "Also, you are drawing up bad memories or dreams... Nightmares that never happened yet did..."

"It all comes full circle. Born from ashes and dust to return when one must..." And that isn't morbid at all. "The faceless one watches. Always watching. Even with no eyes. Isn't it terrifying how insignificant we really are?" I know how terrifying I look throwing my arms out with hints of madness sparkling in my eyes. But right now, with static in my head, and pain in my body I just want it all to shut up. "I mean hey, it's not like there's a war coming or anything?" laughter, strained and crazy because we know... We've seen it already. "Oh but there is... And it's not their fault, we can't prevent it, and hey who knows what changes it could bring. Good, Bad? Chaos theory always says Things will get worse before they get better." I laugh again now a bit more subdued, a bit less crazy because having a break is actually a good way to refresh myself.

"Obito-chan... Please, just go blank okay... It was less terrifying when you used to do that..." That's kind of ironic, but I still laugh. I still find some humor in that response from my twin. That single request. "Please, then have a nap or something... Refresh because this is..."

"What am I scaring you?" I ask a sharp toothed grin spreading over my face, emphasis on my canines. "That's funny Tomoko-nii, the big bad S-Class Nukenin who made an enemy of the entire world scared of a little sixteen going on six year old brat who's barely even scraping by in the Academy."

"Obito!" I turn to Kakashi at his voice, and even he steps back a little. "Please just calm down okay. We have a plan, we have organization..."

"Yes Obito-kun, we're all set you know." Rin confirms standing back. I can also see Gai right by her with an expression tinged with nerves. Kurenai and Asuma are closer to my twin, which actually kind of puts me in the center. Closed in and kept just separate enough.

It's amusing.

"Oh really, but can we really fight back against anything this way... The real world isn't like this. We'd be eaten alive as we are. Because this is not how it works." I can feel my expression cracking, and the cracks in my own mind as the static gets louder. "People are monsters and monsters are people... Eldrich horrors that lurk and watch... It hurts... It hurts niisan and I just want the static to go away! I want it all to Stop!" I whimper a hand clutching at my shirt over my heart and fisting the material as tears slide over my face broken laughter as it all just breaks.

I've always been ridiculously fragile really.

Never had a decent hold on my emotions and my mental state. It really is a two sided blade. Either way you'll get cut. Holding them in until they burst and overwhelm or expressing them so freely to the point where at times you just don't know how to control them when needed. Expressing them to the point where they can be used even more against you...

Where's the middle ground.

"Make the static go away... Slenderman, Slenderman sometimes hums a lonely drone. Slenderman, Slenderman he will wander around your home." I laugh again crumpling down and pulling myself into a ball.

"Slenderman, Slenderman blends in well within the trees. Slenderman, Slenderman in the fog he's hard to see. Slenderman, Slenderman dressed in darkest suit and tie. Slenderman, Slenderman you most certainly will die..." I hear Tomoko finish it, beginning in English and then switching for everyone else to understand at the end. "It's stuck on repeat isn't it... A tune heard on the breeze and a face in the peripheral." he crosses his arms sympathetic for the moment.

"I must ask... Who is Slenderman?" Hearing Gai's question we both kind of trade glances, even as everyone, even the Sensei look at us confused. Highly eager as well, interested in hearing about this mystery.

"More like what is Slenderman." I correct humming a bit under my breath, tune ominous, but more relieved now. I'm actually a bit calmer now. "And how would one even begin to explain that..."

"It's not as clear cut as anything..."

"I also do not think that it is a good idea to explain it to you guys. I mean hey, we are all training to be shinobi, as in Paranoid people, and Slenderman is the king of making you paranoid. King of stalkers." I actually smirk at that canines just barely poking out. "I mean come on, out of all the eldrich horrors of my old world, Slenderman was one of the leading paranoia causes... Even branching into the real world. Spreading across the face of reality..."

"Yeah that, stabbing case right?"

"Yeah, the SLENDER Stabbings I think... I can not actually remember it clearly... Your old memories are kind of... Crowdy."

"Same to you." Tomoko sighs before crossing his arms over his chest and surveying everyone. "Well since we have already kind of blown it... We might as well share some Slender stories."

"Share some history and mythology... From another world and another time." I shrug "But hey, that's what dying and being reborn will do to you." It's not like anyone would believe any of them if they shared that secret. I mean seriously, eventually they probably won't even believe it. Although hey, that's a lot of people now brought in. Kind of. I mean who knows, I know that we trust, Kakashi, Rin and Gai enough to eventually have this knowledge given to them permanently... Kushina-shishou also has the knowledge that we have been reborn so hey.

"Yeah, that's right. So let's go."

"First of all, some of the other names; the Tall Man, the Tree Man, the Operator(who actually might be someone entirely different-Tomoko), the Pale Man, the Thin Man, Slendy, and well... That's it... Unless you want us to share some of his names in other languages?" I shrug unsure whether to continue or not.

"He is typically described as a faceless man with long arms that reach almost to the ground. Tall, and dressed in a fine suit black as coal."

"Dressed in darkest suit and tie... Pale, tall, faceless." I summarize for my twin and he grins clasping his hands behind his back.

"Effects of his presence vary, it can be as simple as the feeling of being watched, but it does get worse. Moving into what's called Slender Sickness which is static in the head, headaches, loss of focus, nausea and generally feeling rotten. Increasing paranoia... The urge to record what's happening and eventually..."

"You just disappear. What happens to those who disappear is unknown. Children especially tend to be Slenderman's favourite victims... Although... Originally he was associated with children's laughter so who knows. Maybe he's saving them."

"Most of them do seem to come from troubled backgrounds." Tomoko agrees.

"Of course, that could just be conjecture or hyperbole. Considering the Slenderman has killed before." not on screen, never on screen. But reports of people with their organs taken out, snapped necks and burnt corpses. None of them children, but that's still terrifying because no one wants to know that there's something just out of sight that can kill with with barely a thought. It's also contradictory, but then again.

"In some ways though... Everything about this being, this creature is contradictory. Is it a passive creature there to protect and preserve, or a relentless predator out for it's favourite prey. Humanity?" Tomoko steals the thought right from me and waves an arm out over the forest. Gesturing around us as if that would help him to make his point.

"Thing is... Nobody knows. Who, or what the Slenderman actually is." I say with a brief shrug, trying to ignore the pain still faintly throbbing in my shoulder. I can also faintly hear, and feel static buzzing and crackling through my head. "It's just the Slenderman. Reports are contradictory and confusing, how long has it existed? Since forever, only for a handful of decades? Where did it come from, a lost child? The first sinner doomed to walk the land eternally?"

Tomoko stares at me with such wide eyes and I take another deep breath shaking my head. Because it's stuff like this that cause me to pull up short. Information that just doesn't have a source or solid base. Seriously though, Slenderman is one of those creatures that just has so many interpretations, so much information... That you just can't tell what's true and what's not.

Is it real?

Is it fake?

People have killed in the name of the Slenderman... Exactly what is a proxy and how do people become one? What does he(it?) look for in a victim. Is he a hero, or villain? Monster or something more normal... How would you even know. How could you even know...

And then there's Slenderman's various abilities. "From teleportation and messing with technology to conjured fire and magical tentacles. Hypnotism, mental pokes, the slider effect..." I pause a hand in the air that moves to my chin and I press a finger to my lips. "Unfocused eyes, easy to miss... Distortion of time and your surroundings, mimicry. Mind alteration and some effects to the environment around you... Foggy conditions and a night darker than normal, along with the static and fuzziness..." I shrug, because really what else is there to explain at this point.

"It's kind of weird though... Because, the Slenderman seems to have different abilities, depending on the time, the place and the person that he's attempting to capture? Take... Do whatever with anyway." He scratches at the side of his head one of those half-sheepish half-mischievous smiles crossing over his face. "And I think that's-"

He's cut off when there's a sharp spike of something in the air and abruptly it's like a black out effect happens. All I can really think of saying, of doing in that moment.

"Did the Kami just turn off the fucking sun?" Because seriously. I can hear the other Academy kids screaming and someone shouting about it been too dark to see. Among other more normal reactions but really all I can think about is that it's as if the Kami just turned around and decided to turn the sun off for the moment.

As if that's normal.

Then again shinobi...

Also both me and Tomoko are reincarnations... So not much to say there.

At the same time though, there's something else. My eyes, my instincts, I adjust much, much quicker than everyone else. I'm really, really used to the dark.

Of course, I kind of wish that I wasn't. I really, really, really wish that I wasn't considering exactly who/what is standing there.

"Ahh right... I kind of forgot that he could do that..." I mumble to myself as the figure kind of strolls right through the group and static buzzes through my head. The form kind of fades and fuzzes every now and again but always remains just in focus enough for me to see exactly who/what they are. "Temporal and environmental alternation... Huh..."

"Obito! What are you talking about... Who's there?" I actually laugh a bit, static rising in my head, that song coming back to mind. Slightly different, but at the same time... It's still the same song, the same tune.

Ominous and haunting as it slowly begins to spill out from my lips.

"Y̶͖̩͓̖̠̳̤̲͚ò̝͚͔͎̗͇̞ṵ̱͍̬̣̘ ̨̢͙͉̱ḿ̳͚̳̲ó̡͓̭̯̭̤͓͜s̷̞͔͚̥̪̥̀͘t͉͚͔̻̞͇́́ ͖̫̝͙c̸̞͕e͎̳͉̫r̨̞̞̥͡t̲̟̜͔͟a҉̩̞̲͔̬̝͈̳͔i̸͕͘n͎̪̯̥̙̝̳̘̦̕͢͡l͍̩̦͔ỳ̫̙̼̬͔ ̝̣̙͍͔ͅś̳͈͖̝͟h̜̞̪͇̪̞̤̩a̬̤ͅḽ̻͟l҉̸̤̟̜̗̤̤ ̢̤̞̭̦͜d̢̞̥͎̹͓̳i̸̤͈͕̪̞̠̺͟ȩ̷͍̟..."

It sounds weird, cracking and buzzing even if it's my own voice. As if I'm being distorted, and I can't help but laugh some more, because how else am I supposed to react? How else am I supposed to deal with the fact that somehow, I've managed to bring a creature from my previous world into this one?

How else am I supposed to deal with the fact that this entire generation of Konohagakure children and shinobi are going to have some subtle influence from the Slenderman himself?

How?

So I laugh, and kind of pity our poor sensei. They have no control at all anymore... But then again... Neither do we.

Chapter Text

Chapter Seventeen: Day ???: Welcome to SLENDER Woods

I don't know how long it takes for any of us to really come back to ourselves afterwards. I just know that now we're definitely not in the same place that we were previously. We're still in a forest but that's about where the similarities end... Also peering around our group is rather diminished. I can only see Gai, Rin and a couple of the civilian kids from where I am.

Tomoko-nii, Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai are missing completely along with our sensei and the rest of the class.

I sit up and look around desperately for them before trying to use the link...

PAIN!

Sharp and shooting, striking right through my skull and out into the rest of my body. I yelp dropping right down back to all fours, fingers spasming in the dirt grasping it as I shake unable to even maintain that control.

Pounding and roiling waves of nausea that rise up and overtake even that. My chakra swelling up in response rushing past the edges of my control and literally throwing up a dust storm around me. Smoke and embers blazing and catching in the wind and dust as I lose hold on the last little bit of my contained chakra.

It blazes along my veins and I feel like screaming. Because having no control is extremely painful and dangerous and I can just barely hear screaming from around me. Gai's shouting support and; Rin is panicking. I see the bandages whip up and past me catching flames as they go and I can kind of understand why. Even beyond the roaring static and stabbing pain arching through my body and head.

The connection to my twin is dark, a yearning hole sucking and pushing at the same time. Tugging at me while pushing and seeping its own darkness through my being.

I don't have a clue what that means for my twin. But I know that it doesn't mean anything good for me. For where Slenderman is, because this is his world. His woods and his game.

And I'm right in the middle of it... Everything in my body is telling me that. From the roiling storm of pain and nausea, to my knowledge and of course the fire. Not to mention the fact that I knew the signs.

I knew how to tell that he was there.

That I was been followed.

I knew and recognized them.

If that wouldn't make him more interested in me, then I've clearly been barking about the wrong legend. I mean it's not like I haven't gotten things mixed up before, but in this case such a thing would be bad... Very, very bad.

So I grit my teeth against the pain and close my eyes dropping my head and clenching my fists in the dirt. With blazing flames of chakra flowing freely through my body warming me to rather uncomfortable degrees. Clothing tearing and sweat dripping and sliding down to drop right to the ground evaporating before it even gets close. I can hear the hiss that it makes, and I feel like crying out once more.

But I can't, I refuse to allow this to completely overwhelm me. The connection is what's causing most of this pain so I hook into it and although it hurts even more I tear at it. Shredding pieces of it and cutting it away from myself... Cutting it off and alleviating the press of the abyss on my soul and chakra.

It's not completely gone... Not really and I know that I'll be able to fix it at some point in the future, but for the moment it's a new and gaping yearning hole where there used to be an echo of my twin. It terrifies me more than my brief loss of control, more than my little breakdown when things became just that overwhelming, more than when I blanked myself and shut my emotions down. It means that for once I have no support. None, and I'm alone.

Well okay that's not entirely true and I raise my head to peer around at those who're there with me.

Rin's still here. Gai's here, the civilian trainees are still here. Maybe the rest of the class is missing, maybe the teacher is missing and my twin is completely cut off from my senses... But, I'm not entirely alone yet. I still have my friends... My companions, possible future team mates.

And that's what makes it click in my mind. That concept and everything just straightens out. Except that with that straightening, my emotions are stone-walled.

To cope with this situation they've shut down. Empty and blank, with a vague kind of knowledge, that there should be something there. I should be feeling something, anything, but I'm not. I dismiss that though, because in this situation it's probably for the best that they don't slow me down. That they don't hold me back from making difficult choices in these situations that we're facing.

Empty.

I probably look rather deadpan as well, stiffly moving myself and turning to face everyone else. My emotions locked away to be replaced with cold calculation. Gai and Rin are both staring at me and I meet their gaze with my own before turning away and looking out to observe where we are with a more critical eye.

The trees are thin, with branches that loom and arch well over our heads. The shadows cast over the ground are long and pretty much completely black. There's also a heavy fog that's oozing around and sinking into us dampening and draining the spirits of the class. Looking up a pale moon shines down on us. A thin, pale milky circle hanging overhead in the sky.

I take it all in and barely think about it as I cross my arms and take a deep breath. My eyes close and I focus on the feeling of my chakra. On the feeling of my companions chakra. All is fine, and I could care less about how most of them have spikes rising in their chakra due to fear. Not while everyone is still alive and not while we're all together here like this. There are thirteen of us altogether in our group. Rin and Gai will help me to lead.

My eyes snap back open and I turn around with a stern expression crossing my face.

"Rin. Gai" my voice sounds hollow even to my own ears. "There's thirteen of us altogether here. We need to remain together to locate the rest of the class." monotone, blank, empty. I can't even pull up any emotion for this as I turn to look back out into the forest. "The most important thing would be to stick to the path, to remain together, and to not allow him to pick us off one by one." I closed my eyes and I could still feel the echoes of the pain from the abyss that had overtaken the link with my twin.

It would be terrifying honestly, if I actually cared. This blank state is actually a good thing in this world. In this new life. Going blank... I take a deep breath and tilt my head just a touch to the right. Just a touch in one direction to simply listen.

Nothing.

Even the wind in this place is dead silent. It's like walking through an empty graveyard honestly. Or wandering out into the backyard at midnight to just stare up at the moon. Not even the dogs would bark at that time. Too scared of something. But for me it was peaceful.

It was nice and it was secure.

Although it doesn't help in this situation. I look to the right and then to the left. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I pause for a moment to consider.

"Any Nara or Inuzuka here?" My voice still sounds so empty. My eyes barely even glance over those who're gathered. I just don't care, we just need to get this over and done with. "Well, are there?" My tone sharpens a bit and there's a bark. Two boys slowly come to the front. One is clearly a Nara, they still look like they'd rather be asleep. The other has to be an Inuzuka, their puppy is sitting on their head.

I watch them both with my completely blank expression. It's barely worth noting them both really. So they exist, so they're here. That's all that matters. Whether or not they can do the job that I will require them to is the next important thing. Everything else doesn't really matter. Their feelings don't matter, because we need to find the rest of the class. And of course get back to Konohagakure. Everything else is secondary.

My arms cross themselves over my chest as I observe the two of them. As I decide whether or not they would be of any use. Eventually I deem them acceptable and snap my fingers.

"Okay, good. Inuzuka have your dog bark if it catches anything that might be slightly off. Nara, track the shadows. They seem strange." I look over to Gai and Rin, both are staring at me. Actually everyone seems to be staring at me honestly. Should... should this be making me uncomfortable? I don't know so I just blink and then take a deep breath. "Gai, Rin. We need to figure out which direction to go... Also, keep everyone on the path."

Stay on the path.

You should always stay on the path. It seems like such an important concept. A rule to follow. Something that we should be following.

"Rin." I close my eyes and take another deep breath. "First aid, basics. Splinting and rough patch jobs." I don't await her answer before I simply start to walk. "Inuzuka! By my side, Nara stick with Gai!" I can't be bothered to wait any longer for us to sort things out. "We should just start getting things done. Start to move. Start to find everyone so that we can figure out how to get home..." Fuinjutsu would probably be our best bet.

Since this isn't exactly a realm that's within reality though... I don't know how accurate it would be. The Nara could probably help me out with that when the time comes, or I could ask my twin when we find him. Kakashi could possibly know some things as well?

But it's only a possibility, there's no guarantee. So I discard those thoughts for the moment and instead focus on the immediate. Where are we? Beyond the obvious fact that we're in wood somewhere it's incredibly hard to tell. Yet there's a certain feeling in the air that defines the place as unnatural. Even with a barrier cutting me off from really feeling anything it makes me shiver. It doesn't give me pause though, it merely makes me feel as if I have tar oozing through my body and sticking my clothing to my skin.

It's so wrong, and yet it also feels so right.

Maybe it's what death feels like. If I did die, which I don't think that I did. Maybe it's because my twin did, and because we share memories. In that way we both died to be reborn.

I can feel a smile cross my face. A smile that's not happy, and that's not sad. It's just a smile, smiling at nothing and for no reason. Somehow that strikes me as vaguely familiar... but I can't be bothered to follow the thought and just let it drop with the senseless smile.

We just continue to walk really. The Inuzuka and the Nara kid don't alert us to any strange things, apart from the forest seemingly continuing on into eternity anyway.

But I already knew to expect that.

The being, the Slenderman wouldn't give us up without making it very difficult for us to clearly find our way out. Without making it a challenge. That just wouldn't do, add in the fact that we're shinobi children and it kind of makes it even more of an impossibility. No matter the fact that we're only six and seven year olds. We're still shinobi in training, and that fact is going to make this very interesting.

"This next experiment seems very interesting... Don't you think?"

That feels like a reference coming out of my mouth, but to what I couldn't possibly know. I don't exactly keep a list of things to reference in my head after all. And here no one would get them anyway. I let out a sigh and shake my head before looking up to see if I could possibly spot the moon, or the sun, or simply something like the sky.

All I can see are branches, and leaves and distantly grey. As if there's nothing beyond the plants that stretch into the abyss.

It's kind of poetic actually. Is that poetry. Someone once described death as poetry... I shake my head and curl and uncurl my hands. My clothing is not right, this isn't right, nothing is right! Nothing is, I stop causing dust to actually puff into the air. Something is wrong, something is wrong. My head is pounding and there's this heavy weight sitting on me, pushing me down. I grit my teeth against it because I don't understand.

I don't...

I just don't understand where it's coming from. Or what, or why.

"Obito-kun? Are you okay?" I blink and peer at Rin, who's suddenly right there and... Did I completely blank out or something? When did we enter a building? I look around startled by the abrupt change in our surroundings. "Obito-kun please..."

"N-nani? Itsu?" I can't even begin to form a response to this. Oh and look my emotions are back as well. Leaving a sick and yuck feeling curving through my body and stalking up my spine. I feel like curling up and hiding away from the entire world. There's something just distinctly wrong with this situation. It's not even that we're here, it's just something wrong with this situation. "There's something wrong Rin-chan... there's something wrong and I don't know what it is..."

"We know Obito-kun. We all know..." Rin says and I look at her with such wide eyes. Because it's not that simple. They could know, but they wouldn't understand, not really and I laugh. I laugh because it's the worst thing in the world.

"No, it's not that kind of wrong Rin-chan... it's not wrong because Slenderman's here" though that's definitely part of it. It's just there's something else that's just rubbing me in all the wrong ways now that I have all my emotions back in place. "It's not even that I lost the connection to Tomoko-nii." definitely not that, since I can still feel it. Even if it's torn and broken and will need repairing as soon as we find them. "It's something else... something to do with the other..."

Something to do with the thing that kept showing up. The thing that Tomoko-nii calls Kuro. It makes me nervous and I cross my arms over my chest. Because it's eerie and it's wrong and this is Slenderman's realm so why do I feel like it's here somewhere?

Why do I feel like we've stepped right onto a giant chessboard and that we're not going to be able to make it across without some casualties? Why do I feel as though this is barely even the tip of the ice-burg that we're facing here and now? Why do I feel so cold, so scared and so alone even when I'm surrounded by people who will do their best to protect me. To protect my brother, to help. Why?

I shiver and clutch at myself. Arms hugging myself and eyes closing. Rin moves closer to my side and I have to lean just a touch into her. It's appreciated. I open my eyes back up to see the Inuzuka and Nara boys from earlier. The ones who I gave commands to. It takes me a handful of seconds to remember what I had told them and I narrow my eyes and purse my lips in thought. I look first at the Inuzuka, puppy still perched on his head and then at the Nara.

I take a deep breath and then.

"I'm sorry." I don't entirely know what I'm apologizing for. I just am. It's all that I can do. "By the end of this... I think that we're all going to belong to the Slenderman" that's probably too honest, but it's the truth. By the end of this, we're all going to be rather loyal to that particular elderich abomination. It will certainly make things interesting when we get back to Konohagakure in any case.

"What do you mean?" the Nara is sharp. As all Naras are and I take a deep breath.

"He rules here." It's barely a whisper. "We're in his realm, and the Slenderman, he takes proxies. He has followers, loyal followers in his forest. We're here now, and his reasons for taking us are ambiguous. Then again he's always ambiguous..." I trail off and then raise my head back up. "But a certainty is that those of us who survive, will surely become proxies. Even if we are returned to Konohagakure, we'll belong to him, and our loyalty will be only to him."

I sound so blank. I'm once more entering the blank emotional state from before. Although now, now it's easier, safer honestly. And nobody seems as worried as they were before when I entered it. Maybe because we're inside. Inside offers a feeling of safety, as false as it is...

Inside means protection. A false protection from the creature that stalks the woods. From the creature that has snatched us.

It's all a lie.

Like the cake from Portal.

It makes me feel weird, again. Like there is a weight crushing us, holding us down and keeping us here. We need to move, get back to our feet and keep going. I'm back to my feet within seconds and shaking my head somewhat like the canine companion of the Inuzuka boy. And that actually reminds me.

"Uh... what are your names anyway?"

Both boys blink and then the Inuzuka laughs. It's loud and long, the Nara on the other hand simply sighs and shakes his head. When they both calm down I'm still standing there with a single brow cocked. Expectant.

"I'm Inuzuka Shibako! Don't you forget it, I'm going to become a legendary shinobi someday!" the Inuzuka says motioning to himself with a huge grin. "And this is my partner Iromaru!" he uses his thumbs to motion to the canine on his head that barks happily as confirmation.

"Nara Soukago." the Nara boy says sounding entirely done with the situation. Not that I really expected anything more. He's a Nara, there's not much more to say about it. "I dream of having a peaceful life, average shinobi, normal wife. You know." Yep, Nara.

Neither Rin nor Gai seem to be that bothered by it so I only blink. And then I wonder if I've ever really given out a dream for the future. Not really, it probably doesn't matter anyway. I look around for a handful of moments observing the other students. I should probably get their names as well.

Names are important.

Names have a certain power. To know your name is to know who you are. Your name will always say something about you, even if it's not obvious at a glance. Names fit, they give you a box to wear. Maybe it's not that big of a thing, but it's important enough that I actually stop and with a sigh I ask for everyone's name.

I'm probably going to forget half of them but eh... At least now we know who's who. To some degree anyway.

I blink and then look up. There's a rather interesting crack in the roof of this room, it spirals out and reminds me more of a cobweb than a crack. I blink and take a deep breath crossing my arms over my chest.

"Shibako... you're still able to keep track of any changes in the environment with the help of Iromaru right?" I ask and Shibako flashes me a fanged grin which I can easily translate as of course. It actually makes me roll my eyes and I turn to speak to Soukago only to freeze. There's a funny sound and everyone shifts. Everyone shifts and we're all suddenly looking around trying to find out what made that sound. What's making that sound.

Scraping, metal on stone, a dragging sound.

I'm pretty sure that my face has slammed straight into the perfect OH SHIT expression because we all scramble. Just barely in time as some human figure bursts into the room and swings an axe for us. An axe, right for a group of six and seven year olds. Honestly, it would be more horrifying if we weren't shinobi in training. As it is, it's more annoying than anything else.

Especially with how stone walled my emotions currently are.

But still we're shinobi in training. So even if we're off guard, we still do have some weapons, not to mention our chakra among other things. Not that we really should take our chances. After all, this is their realm. Slenderman rules here, we're the ones at the disadvantage. Yet I still land perfectly on my feet and give a half-way decent glare to the back of this stranger in a hood.

White hood, black pants. An axe... I can't actually say that I know which proxy this one might be.

"Target: Evasion!" I say and there's nodding all around the group except from one person. The only other Uchiha here. One of my cousins. Toshi I think. "Itoko we don't have the time to-" I'm cut off by the hooded guy taking another swing with the axe. Toshi squeaks at that as I duck backwards to go beneath the swing. My teeth end up barred and I narrow my eyes at the guy in the hood.

They really are quite annoying. But I know that I can't risk getting myself killed here. Not by standing around in stupidity.

So I barely give a final glance around before we all scatter. Scattering is the safest option at this point, of course we've got to be careful in case of dead ends in here. That's the biggest reason that being inside is bad. A false sense of safety and protection. It's a better death trap than the forest itself is. Distantly I'm aware that I should probably worry about my cousin's safety but I really couldn't care less.

Toshi has whatever fate is in store for him coming. It's even in his name really. Dying in Vain. He's an idiot.

All I do is move, feet pounding in the dirt as I streak through the trees. I'm not sure when I exited the building but that doesn't really matter. The main priority is surviving. And finding whoever else is still alive. I slow down a bit and look up at the murky sky before shaking my head. Eyes dart and I shove my hands into pockets on my shorts.

Time to go looking really.

Of course that's easier thought than done. Because really, I hate forests. I hate trees. They look the exact same. Tall, dark and ominous. It's even more impossible to orientate myself here than it was in the actual training ground. This is ridiculous really. But I still blink and take a deep breath. I'm not angry, or upset, just accepting of this fact. So instead I focus on what I am able to tell. This is Slenderman's world, I've lost the path, and previously we were inside.

Also there's my chakra sense.

It's probably not my best idea, but it's an idea. So I take a deep breath, focus and then breath out stretching out my senses. It's like dipping into a freezing cold lake, or under the spray of a cold shower. No heat, just sudden coldness that in any other context would have made me yelp. As it is all I do is shudder, and soldier on.

I can't really feel anyone in my immediate vicinity. Yet there is something here. I open my eyes back up and find myself staring at a familiar figure. An achingly familiar figure...

My blank state falls away and is replaced by a pressure on my heart like a clamp. My breath catches in my throat and all I can do is stare with wide eyes. Hope, pain, fear, sadness, joy, and many others all swirl together in an overwhelming concoction within me before I gasp out my full reaction to the person standing there and smiling at me.

"D-Dad?"

Chapter Text

Chapter Eighteen: Day ???; Ghosts of Lives Gone

I'm sure that anyone else would have the same reaction. I'm sure. That's my Dad. My father, my daddy... And not the one from this life. Rather it's my original dad. My daddy. The one who died, the one who I remember who I loved so much. The one who's death I still suffered over, because I didn't know how to cope.

Because who can cope with death? Who can deal with that?

So of course I lose my composure. Of course I feel tears welling up and my bottom lip trembling. Of course I shake and sniff pushing up my goggles to wipe my eyes and my nose. Because that's my dad. He's the one who taught me so much. Riding a bike, swimming... So much.

So of course I would react the way that I am. How could anyone expect anything different. Intellectually I'm aware this is probably some kind of trap, but still. That's my daddy. I was always a Daddy's girl in my previous life. Even here the shades of that are there. So of course I want to rush over to him. To wrap myself up in his arms and never let go.

Yet I hesitate.

I hesitate to do so. Because I know, and here the problem lies in how I'm going to confront my past doesn't it. Am I going to run away, am I going to embrace it... or will I move on?

I don't know... I don't like to think about things gone by. Not really, I've always been more of a roll with it and see where it takes you kind of person... At least on the surface. Fact is everyone is incredibly complex, on the surface you can be the kind of person who just goes with the flow while inside you might be panicking 24-7, or fixating on the past. You could seem forwards thinking but actually be impulsive, or the other way around. You can have so many contradicting and opposing components to you that all spin together and work in tandem to make you who you are.

When it comes to things like family...

Well, aside from Tomoko-nii and Grandmother, Mikoto-Hakubo... I guess I've been trying to avoid replacing people from my previous life in this one. Grandmother isn't Nana, she isn't my Nana, she's Grandmother. I already had so many Aunts that Mikoto just kind of slid in as another beside them... Fugaku is just Fugaku-sama though, because I don't want him to replace the uncle that I already had... my only Uncle... Tomoko-nii had no one to replace, because he was so different from my older brothers and despite being Assigned Female he's a boy... So I had no worries there.

So this is the true test. Face to face with the figure of my Dad. My Dad. My past, my ghosts. I shake and close my eyes. I need to be careful, I need to be aware of what's really happening here. But it still hurts so much. The wind blows around us and I can feel the way that it tosses my hair around before opening my eyes back up and staring at my father.

There's that feeling of a lump in my throat. A certain tightness that would suggest tears but there are none coming. I never did manage to cry when he'd died after all. I just went numb, completely numb and unable to react. Here facing him is the same, surrounding by silence and looming trees. Branching shadows, and a choice that hurts so much.

The Slenderman certainly knows how to tug your heart. How to tug your soul.

Yet I swallow and take a deep breath. And then slowly I turn away. One step, two steps. I pick up speed and then I'm running. My eyes closed and a pain in my chest and at the edges of my eyes. I can't. I can't. I want to scream, I want to cry, I want to escape. I want to give in, to run to my Dad. But I refuse, I refuse to play that game. I may not be the brightest in the box, but I am certainly not the fool that I often played.

Eventually I slow down and stand a hand resting on the trunk of a tree as I pant. I sniff and my body trembles. I can feel my eyes narrowing slightly, tears burning within them but never quite falling. This is agony. This is true pain, knowing sadness but not being able to express it. I wipe furiously at my eyes and swallow trying to regain my balance before I see someone.

I lift my head and my breath catches again.

Bailey... Makeita... It's the twins. Both of them smile at me. Bailey with that one gap in his teeth and he looks so happy. So proud. Makeita on the other hand looks smug, and she looks like she's just done something and gotten away with it. She always was such a spoilt brat. I back away from them with wide eyes and a trembling frame.

"Hey what's wrong Tamara?" I jump and spin around to see my other little brother right there. To see my closest little sibling. Hair as messy as it always is, crossed arms, the faint expression of a pout. Brown eyes that narrow on me. "Is this about Minecraft! Come on you said you'd play it!" he says and I can only stare. I can only stare at all three of them.

"Come on Tamara. Aren't you going to teach us to draw?" Bailey asks holding up a piece of paper and a couple of pencils.

"I have something to show you!" Makeita says at the same time that Bailey says his piece. She sounds way too happy, too excited... She always did kind of creep me out honestly. She felt dangerous, the kind of person who even if she was only ten you didn't want her anywhere near the knives. "Come on, come with us sis!"

I shake my head backing away. Backing around my little brother, around Cordell and away from them. I stay there for a few moments just staring, because there's someone missing from this scene and then as I watch... There she is, a grin, a proud look and a bag slung over her back. She spots me and beams before waving and cheerfully calling out a greeting.

Freedom, the only one of them who has absolutely no blood connection to us. But still, the others fade out and now it's just us. Me and her, standing in the middle of a woodland clearing with only the trees standing witness to this.

"Freedom... I... I..." I have so much that I want to be able to tell her, to share with her to teach her and... It doesn't even matter that we don't share any blood. Facing her is just as painful as facing Dad was. At least I already knew that he was dead, but Freedom? She's my little sister, my little mimic and monkey. The one who used to get into flour wars with me. The one who used to blame me for everything even when I was an entire city away...

I can't face her like this.

A hand trembling reaches out and she beams, reaching for me. And then I'm yanking my arm back grimacing and she looks so hurt. I want to take back that action, move and wrap her up into a hug. Tell her that I'll always love her. That she is family, she's ours. Not that man's, not her mother's drugged up mistake... Not anything less than perfect.

But I can't.

Not here. Not like this, so with tears actually beginning to trail I back away and then turn and once more bolt.

Branches catch, and I can feel thorns in my feet through my open toed shinobi shoes. I can feel the scratches that this world gives me as I eventually burst out the other side and actually go flying for a few moments before rolling to a stop at the base of a tree. My legs are up over the rest of me and I can only stare up into the branches before I slowly flop and shake myself off.

I can't deal with this. Not like this. I really can't deal with the past, my previous life being thrown up in my face like this. I find myself staring at my hands, bigger already than my previous ones ever were. At least for this age. It's so strange to notice all these differences now. Aside from the obvious ones, like my gender. Like my name, my body. I curl up a bit arms wrapping around to hug myself.

I actually whimper and sniff trying to hold back from dissolving into upset ponderings. I won't allow myself to break here. I can't allow myself to break here. It's a lot harder than it should be. But these are all my weak spots. So I suppose that it's to be expected. I still force myself back to my feet and snarl a bit barring my teeth and straightening up.

I will not simply bow to the whims of this being. I know his game. I know what he's trying to do.

He can keep using this figments of my past. These ghosts to try and catch me in a snare. But I will not just willingly walk into such a trap. I'll think, I'll contemplate, but here and now. There are others who need me. My brother, Rin, Kakashi, Gai... My friends. My new family. So I refuse.

I take a deep breath and I know that my body language changes with this resolve. Everything also shifts slightly to the left and before I can do anything the woods are swirling away and I'm staring at Rin, at Gai. At the rest of my group. Who're all crowding around me while I'm slumped against a tree. I blink and push up my goggles to wipe at my eyes and to try and figure out what just happened.

"What happened?" I ask and Rin looks so relieved. I don't even have time to react when she abruptly moves forwards and wraps me up into a hug. Which is quickly joined by Gai. "Uh not that I don't appreciate it... But what brought this on?"

"You weren't responding at all Obito-chan. It was most worrying!" Gai answers the question because Rin has moved on to checking me over carefully. To trying to make sure that I'm alright. "It was most unyouthful of you to ignore us in that way!" I rub at one eye and nod my head. It really was.

"Sorry, I kind of got lost... I don't know what that was..." I rub the back of my head and gently remove Rin from her fussing over me before I yawn rather abruptly and sway on my feet. Maybe getting up wasn't such a good idea. Not when I'm still so emotionally drained from that experience. Not when I'm still emotionally compromised and vulnerable and then, to my surprise everyone looks up when there's a call.

"TAMARA!" Uh, oh. Sounds like someone is mad... Sounds like my Mom is mad honestly. I stiffen and my eyes widen because that should also be an impossibility. So should the reaction of those around me. They shouldn't be able to hear her... should they? I honestly don't know. But it still causes me to narrow my eyes a bit before pulling my goggles back down and looking around to try and find the source of the voice. To find my mom, or my previous mom anyway.

Rin and Gai both look at me confused. I'm sure they're wondering why I'm so worried about this. Well of course I am, because this is not supposed to be happening. At least I don't think that it's supposed to be happening. My hands curl into fists and I march forwards before looking around for my previous mother. For the last ghost of the past that I would have to face... At least, I would hope that it would be the last ghost that I would have to face.

At least...

At least I hope that Mom will be the last. I hope that she'll be the last of the ghosts of my past. Of my previous life. I don't trust myself to be able to really handle any more.

Peripherally I'm aware of those around me flickering. Their forms twisting and fading away like smoke. I spin around and stare as they dissolve and without thinking I reach trying to grab onto their hands at least. Nothing. I stare at my hands and clench them back into fists my whole body trembling.

It's not fair. It's not fair.

I can feel myself getting more and more worked up. I take a deep breath, and then another and then I slowly turn around to face the final apparition.

To face my mom.

And I can feel the catch in my breath. She's not alone. Nana's there. With the wheelie walker and all. It's even more of a sucker punch to the gut than facing my Dad, than the Twins and Freedom, to my siblings. I have always loved my Nana, I have always adored her and... and...

I want even more desperately to be able to go and snuggle with them both. To show off some of the artwork and seals that I've done since being reborn. To share with them what I like about this new world. I can feel myself change, growing and regaining my lost height and lost appearance. Messy curls and ringlets framing my pale face in brown, scars from scratches that never healed, 'daggy' clothing and my glasses.

My want is so strong.

Because I still have these holes... I can feel it as tears leak past my control and I lower my head to stare down at my sneakers. To stare at the familiar neon green and dark blue shoes laces tucked away and hidden. Grey sweatpants, a pink shirt with 'I'M ALWAYS RIGHT, you're always wrong' branded across it. I can't, I can't. I sniff and push up my glasses to wipe away at the tears leaking from my eyes.

I can't do this.

I look up to see them both smiling. Tired and worn. A step, then another and then I stop. The illusion over me fade away and I shake my head sadly. I'm not that person anymore.

I'm not a teenage girl anymore. So I take a deep breath look at them. Look at my mother and then at my Nana. I look off to the side and then around at the trees standing witness. I close my eyes once more and take another deep breath and finally allow myself to smile. It's sad, but it's genuine and that's all that really matters I think.

"I'm sorry. I will always cherish the memories of the times that I lived there. I will always remember you, my family. But..." and I can see the other ghosts appear, along with a few extras. There's Poppy, and Nona, and Beth, Vera, Tony, Jamie, Joseph, Sarina, Josh, Ginny, my older sister Jane. "I can't go back. This is my life now, this is where I'm needed and where I belong now. I would love to be able to show you all what I've learnt. Who I've made friends with, and how I am now. I'd love to be able to share this with you... but, but I know that I can't." I sniff and wipe at my eyes one last time before looking around at everyone.

I can see how confused, how lost so many of them look and I take another breath. And then I slowly walk around and past everyone. Beginning with Mom. Then Nana, then Dad, Freedom, the twins, Vera, Poppy and Nona, Beth, Vera, Jamie and Sarina, Josh and Joseph, Ginny, my older sister and then finally my younger brother Cordell.

And then I keep walking.

I can feel the way that the wind howls as I keep walking and I lower my head a bit. My goggles shield my eyes and I just keep walking. I don't look back. I can't look back.

I need to keep moving.

This is my life now. This is my choice and I grit my teeth to try and firm up my resolve a bit more. The howling of the wind seems to reach it's peak and then abruptly cuts off leaving me momentarily thrown off balance before I shake my head and look around. In front of me in the building, the one that I ran out of when this all began. And looking around pinned to the tree beside me is one of my classmates.

I am actually not entirely sure how I'm supposed to react. Horrified? Shocked? I just stare.

It's gruesome but not entirely unexpected really. I end up grimacing and then looking around. Whoever he was doesn't matter to me, he's not one of my friends. Not one of my circle, so it doesn't really matter to me. It probably should but eh. I hear a crack and my head snaps up to see...

Toshi?

He's still alive?

I gape with such wide eyes at him and the other Uchiha child rolls his eyes before shaking his head. He walks over and grabs me dragging me further into the woods and muttering to himself before finally speaking up.

"If you had looked up you would have seen Nohara Kamoko decorating the canopy, the one pinned to the tree was Ainoko" I blink as he released my arm and turns to me crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm sure there were others who got caught... there was apparently..."

"The temptation!" I snap my fingers together in realization. "That's what it was. The temptation test, give you the illusion of something that you really want and see if you would go for it..."

He nods his head and I grin for a handful of moments before that expression shifts into something between horror and realization. Tomoko-nii would've had just as much trouble as I did, if not more. He's also a reincarnation, before I can turn and run off to try and possibly locate him though Toshi catches me again and commences dragging me once more. I want to hit him. For more than a moment as he's dragging me I really want to hit him, or scream or holler I don't know.

Until there's a cave. And then I simply stare at the flickering orange light as he releases me and continues to walk over. There's a yap and I jump a bit before staring at another familiar face.

"S-Shibako?" I stammer a bit and the Inuzuka laughs. He seems as cheerful as ever then. I take a deep breath and then shake my head. I close my eyes and then open them back up to see Soukago standing there as well. The Nara boy has a completely bland expression on his face. It makes me throw back my head and laugh before I take a deep breath and then ask a very important question. "Okay, so who's dead?"

"Aburame Hachisu, Nohara Kamoko, Ainoko, and Mitsurin" Soukago delivers with little to no emotion in his voice. Shibako nods his head vigorously in agreement with the Nara boy and I close my eyes. That's four names, and two of them are technically Clan kids, one of them Rin's cousin... I think... Well Kamoko was related to her.

I don't know how close they really were though. Considering that I'm pretty sure Rin was like Tomoko-nii and I. An orphan. Although I think that she lives with her Uncle rather than her Grandmother like us.

I actually don't know if any of her Grandparents are even alive really. That's not the point though. I shake my head and look around. It seems as though the rest of the group at least are here. I can see Rin, and Gai. The other Aburame kid who was with our group, my cousin Toshi sitting by a girl(Akanko) who's simply staring blankly at the ground and the other child(Zasshu) who's looking a little bit twitchy. That's nine of us altogether. I wonder how many others have died on this trip to the eldrich's realm.

Four dead from our group of thirteen, which leaves us nine left.

Nine, nine from thirteen. I should probably feel something more than a grim satisfaction that it's not more of us. Especially that it's not my few precious people, and that it's not my cousin, as little that we get along. At least he's not dead, we're not dead we're alive. I slump against the cave wall and stare into the flickering flames that lie in a pit in the middle. Can we really chance having such a thing here... Probably not, but I don't want to draw attention to it.

It's a small comfort really. The idea that it's here. That we're here. Another false comfort like what being inside was, but a comfort nevertheless. I close my eyes and take a deep breath before opening my eyes back up and deciding to speak my thoughts.

"So, the first challenge, temptation is over. There would have to be others... Other challenges, whether against our morals or life preservation... tricks for us to face." I hum and stare further into the flames. "Who knows what the rest could be... This one gave us the illusion of what we wanted, or what we missed. The next could be challenging how brave we are, or our patience, our trust in one another..."

"Or it could not exist at all." Toshi cut me off and I blink looking over at him.

"Toshi... I don't think that there won't be another challenge." I say scratching a hand through my hair and he narrows his eyes at me. The others of our group all kind of lean forwards to hear what I am going to say. "For one, it's only logical, the Slenderman doesn't need as many proxies as there are of us. For another, it's to see which of us are even worthy of surviving. So of course there would be more... Maybe it's the eight pages..." I frown and then stand up.

"Eight pages?" Rin asks and I nod my head. "Oh you mean like these pages?" she brightens and reaches into the pocket on her apron before pulling out a crinkled sheet of paper. It's familiar. Really familiar and I want to gape when I recognize it. It's one of the eight pages. "I saw it on the way into the building earlier and grabbed it in case we might have needed it later on... It seemed too out of place to not have been put up on purpose."

"Smart!" Is all that I can really say about that before. "That's one of eight! So come on! Let's go get the rest of them! Alright! We'll do this! Let's go Team Virinati" I don't think that anyone really understands the name. Not even me really but it feels right, it fits. "We can do this! And we'll all achieve our dreams. This I promise! I promise on my goggles! I will do the very best that I can to help everyone here achieve their dreams. To do that... well heh, I guess that I'll have to aim high myself. So when all is said and done! I'm going to be Hokage one day!"

Well that's the highest you can go really.

The paperwork might get annoying but the way that everyone is smiling. That we're all banding together, it's the right thing to say. The right place to aim. Even if I'm not exactly the best person to put into a leadership position it's something to aim for. A tangible goal. I wonder if my twin, if Tomoko-nii has a real goal yet...

I don't think that I've ever really asked him.n Hmm, I probably should do that when we find him then.

Of course aiming for Hokage really means that it's not just aiming to be the strongest. To truly be Hokage you also would have to be the smartest. The wisest, the very best person for the job. You need to be someone who people can trust. A worthy goal in and of itself really, aiming to be a reasonable authority figure. Someone who can get people to band together in times of crisis. That's the Hokage, so maybe I might not be the kind of person who's naturally born for such a job, but I'm still going to aim there.

And the steps that I'll take to get there begin here.

"Is everyone ready?" I ask and Toshi smirks from where he's leaning against the wall. Iromaru yaps eagerly from his position atop Shibako's head. Soukago rolls his eyes but nods his head afterwards, Akanko looks up eyes clearing, Sushi walks over and nods from behind their high collared jacket, Zasshu laughs and delivers a stunning thumbs up while Rin offers a bright smile.

"YOSH! Of course!" Gai shouts and I look around one last time at everyone. We've got one page already, now all that's left to do is find the remaining seven.

And find the rest of our class.

"Alright then!" I jump and spin around punching the air eagerly. "We can do this! I know that we can! So let's go!" I adjust my goggles a bit a grin crossing my face. "Let's show Slenderman that he can't break us! He won't control us! We're going to win his game!"

"We shouldn't get too sure yet Obito-san!" Sushi says a faint buzzing coming from them and I laugh. Because I know. "We may prove what you say, but at this point..."

"I know alright Sushi-san! I know, but as long as we stay determined we can do anything! It's when you believe in yourself that you can touch the sky. It's just the matter of trying, again and again until you finally reach your goal." I grin at the Aburame child, they're older than me, a good few months like Rin is. "And we're not a class of quitters here are we?" shaken heads all around. "So we can do it! I believe it! All we need to do is prove it! And I've already promised, so we will do it. No question about it! It might be hard, but I know that we can do it!"

"I understand Obito-san. Still it's only logical that some of us would still worry about being sure that we would all make it past this point." Sushi says and I sigh turning to them with another smile.

"I know, and I understand Sushi-san... But we've got to try, to hope and believe, because if we don't then we will fail... and that's exactly what Slenderman wants." I adjust my goggles once more and then turn away. "Okay remember we're stronger as a group! We'll move out in a bit, once everyone is rested and 100% ready!"