Uchiha: Back To The Past! (Naruto)

45: I'll Take You In

Obito didn't sleep in the cave with them when night fell. He simply used his Kamui and went right into his dimension to sleep.

He usually wouldn't sleep in his dimension, but he didn't have a house inside there in the middle of nowhere for nothing.

And he needed to think about what to do next more clearly. After all, he wasn't dancing around familiar territory anymore.

He didn't sleep soundly that night.

-----

"Hey."

Yahiko awoke with a jolt.

He opened his mouth to scream when he saw a figure above him wearing a fox ma-

Wait.

"O-Obito!?" he shrieked in surprise as Obito, with his mask on, was just staring down at him sleeping.

"Yes?" he answered, offering a hand for Yahiko to hold on to for him to stand up.

But the orange-haired boy just frowned and stood up by himself.

"Your mask is creepy. You shouldn't wear it." he said, turning around to look at his other two friends sleeping peacefully on the ground.

That made his mouth quirk up but it quickly went back down as his eyes went back to Obito.

Obito didn't respond.

Yahiko shook his head. "Whatever. Anyway,"

He looked again at Obito, "How will you guide us? Give us some food? Or we're you saying that just to get shelter?"

Obito shook his head at all the claims. "No. Actually, I woke you up for a reason."

Yahiko raises a brow as Konan and Nagato started to steer awake with the dog.

"Huh?"

-----

"Woah!"

Obito walked in front of the three children and Chibi ashe showed them around the house.

"Is this... What you meant by 'guide'?" Nagato asked him with a low voice as he inspected the couch.

Obito glanced at him. "No. But, it comes with it."

"How'd you afford this?" Yahiko asked as he looked around the space. Can't tell you this is the exact same house I used to live in as an Akatsuki member, Obito thought.

"Do I really look broke to you?" the Uchiha asked. I have some savings in my dimension, and they stayed the same even after getting here.

Yahiko shrugged as Konan went past him. "I dunno. There's just something about you that makes you seem... off-putting, or scary to the point no one would wonder about your money and stuff."

Obito's brows lifted. Scary...

He shook his head, as he took off his mask and let his face feel the fresh air.

His white hair looked to be shining in the daylight through a window.

Nagato watched through his hair as Obito basked in the wind and the sunlight with a small upward tug of his lip.

The red-haired child can't seem to feel anything else but admiration as the man who introduced himself just yesterday was already giving them a place to stay in and is patient with them, and mostly Yahiko.

He seemed to have noticed Nagato staring as he quirked a brow and glanced at him.

Nagato tensed and looked away.

Then, in the corner, something caught his eye.

He walked up to it. It was a small wooden table, beside the couch on the wall, and on top of it was a picture.

Nagato stared at it and he could see the resemblance of Obito in the boy on the picture, but he had black hair, no scar, and two eyes with what seemed to be a headband from the Leaf Village, which the other three also had in the picture.

"Did you... used to be from the Leaf Village?" Nagato asked. He was not well-informed, but there was a short-termed war that allowed him to see multiple Shinobi with the same headband, which talked a lot about a Leaf Village.

Obito looked as if he brightened up. "Yeah! I... used to be. As you said." he had a sad look in his eye but he continued anyway.

Nagato nodded, and smiled in the revelation that they were going to live with a Shinobi now. A real ninja.

They haven't seen much ninjas in Amegakure. He... didn't really know the reason.

"Really...?" Konan suddenly said as she approached Nagato and inspected the picture with him. She had wide eyes while looking at the people in it.

"So you were a ninja?" Yahiko said suddenly as well as he walked up to the other two with the dog trailing behind him, wagging its tail at the new, cozy environment.

Obito nodded, with a reminiscent smile towards them.

Yahiko brightened up as a spark lit up in his eyes. "Great! Does that mean... you can train us?"

Konan and Nagato immediately snapped their attention towards Obito when the orange-haired boy incquired that.

The Uchiha had a deep look in his eye, and didn't respond for a few seconds, but he still nodded, and the slowly lowering smile widened again as his eye slowly lit up.

He tilted his head, "Are you sure you're up for it?"

Yahiko pumped his fists, "Yeah! Of course! We're all done with being weaklings in this village, we're done! We want to contribute, and contribute we will!"

His confident stance reminded Obito of Naruto, and himself whenever he declared to Rin he would surpass Kakashi soon.

Obito smiled at his enthusiasm as he looked at the other two, which had smiles of their own, similarly agreeing to Yahiko's speech.

"We don't want to be homeless orphans anymore. We want to mean something." Konana continued for Yahiko with a sad expression, but her smile remained, as if pushing herself to be positive that Obito would agree.

Nagato gulped, clearly, as he looked up at Obito.

And for the first time since they met yesterday, he caught a glimpse of Nagato's Rinnegan.

"I-I want to mean something too!" he said with as much determination as he could muster.

After a second more of silence with the only noise around them being Chibi jumping up and down excitedly and wagging its tail at the idea, Obito broke into a small fit of laughter.

He didnt conceal the goofy grin on his face. It might have looked weird as it was difficult to take someone as badly scarred as him laughing seriously.

"What?" Yahiko asked with irritation at Obito's antics.

The three just watched him with different expressions as he laughed his heart off.

"Alright, alright," he took deep breaths and smiled down at them all. Yahiko was about to say something before Obito cut him off with a head pat, with Obito ending up ruffling Yahiko's orange hair.

He chuckled once more, and he gave them one thumb's up. "It's a yes."