used_friendship | 006- Video; Action for Blackthorn

006- Video; Action for Blackthorn

[Action]

[It is early in the evening when he finally begins to stir. A hand slowly reaches up to rub at tired eyes as they blink into focus, Naruto staring up at the ceiling above him. Immediately he frowns as memories of new and old jumble together. It had felt like a dream, though it couldn't have been. Why didn't he have chakra? Oh yeah- Johto.

Feeling the presence of someone else in the room distracts him as he turns his head to the side, immediately greeted with the sight of long, flowing red hair.]

....So when are we going to Violet? [You hit hard enough to knock him out Mom, he'll concede this time.]

[Video]

[A little time later the Pokegear shows Naruto sat on a bed as an excitable Carnivine is wrapped around his shoulders, happily chewing on his head once again. Some things never change!]

So--yeah. I guess that thing happened to me, y'know, when people fall asleep and have the dreams? But they're not real dreams? [Descriptive as always. On that subject though, there are some people he wants to talk to. He should probably send them some private messages.]

Oi Neji. Sasuke. I wanna talk to you guys.

[...Or just do it that way instead. He has a pretty serious look about him for once, so they should probably get in contact with him.]

[With a huff he moves around and attempts to unwrap the Carnivine from around him. Since he has it on, he may as well ask that question he had before the coma stuff happened.]

I'm still gonna go check out that dragon place up here, the one Tenten told me about. What's the best dragon type out there? I have Ryūka-chan already, she's a Charizard now and she's grown really strong.

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A little... a lot of the details were sealed after... everything happened.

[Which... was technically true. Plus, not sure if Kushina would know Rin had been forced to become the Sanbi's jinchuuriki. Maybe the part about her getting in the way of Kakashi's Raikiri. BUT NOW SHE WON'T SAY ANYMORE. God she hates herself so much right now for opening her mouth. TIME TO PUT THE TRAIN OF CONVERSATION BACK ON THE OTHER SET OF TRACKS...]

But what were you going to say?

No... I... I think it makes a really big difference what I know about that. What happened? [He spoke in a slightly halting way, but no seriously, he needed to understand. Even if he didn't agree, this- this was really important.]

[The thought of telling him is literally painful and it showed in the expression that crossed her face. She was seriously considering not telling him, but... she felt she had already said too much as it was. Conflict... Time to go back to vague truths.]

I still remember the day I came back from my mission. Minato had gotten back a day ahead of me, but it was still a few days after Rin had died. She had been on a mission in the Water Country and... [She paused to swipe her fingers over her eyes, obliterating any trace of tears welling up.] She sacrificed herself to keep her team and the village safe. She was given a proper burial and grave in the village, and that was that.

[The urge to demand if she was sure that's how it happened was intense... but he didn't. She wouldn't tell him anyway, would she?

Instead, he took a wavering breath and forced himself to press forward, back to what he'd been talking about with her before. Sort of.]

I... guess I'll just have to accept that.

Makes sense. Ha.

With- with everything.

[He shook his head a little, taking a quavering breath, a little calmer, for the moment. Sort of. Outwardly.]

[A wave of relief swept through her that he hadn't tried pressing for more details. But it was short-lived.]

"With everything"? Obito, you aren't making any sense.

[Yes an echo to start, but he hadn't even explained what he apparently had to tell her, even if he didn't want to.]

I told you. When I said- When I-

[And... and he was choking on sobs again, struggling just to speak through the thickness of his throat.]

I didn't die. That's what wasn't true.

Edited 2013-08-16 07:14 (UTC)

What do you mean you didn't die? O-of course you died. You told me you remembered dying... Minato told me you died. If... if you had survived, you would've come back to the village, injured or not. Right?

[Apparently her denial comes in the form of an accidental unspoken accusation that Obito was lying to her. Or that he had gone nuts. Is that what happened when people were here for too long? Did everyone slowly lose their minds?]

[He made a weird little noise at that, something that tried to be a laugh but turned into a hiccup that fell into a sob. He shook his head hard.]

I thought I died! I did. [He scrubbed at his eyes with his sleeve.]

But I didn't die, I didn't and I think- Do you know how Rin died Kushina-nee? Because I think future me did.

Obito, please...

[It broke her heart so much to see him like this. But there was no way in hell she would ever tell him she died by Kakashi's hand. She knew how he had felt about Rin. She remembered all the times he came to her ranting about Kakashi and calling him an idiot. If he knew... nothing good would ever come of it. It was bad enough he knew Rin died.]

Word would've spread like wildfire if it was you. But... it's like I said, a lot of the details were sealed. Only the highest ranking officials of the village knew. The council elders, the Ho...kage... [And she cuts off for a split second, realizing she basically just tossed Minato under the bus. Oops. Time to continue on quickly to cover up.] But whatever future you was like, I know you would never in a million years hurt Rin. Ever.

But if I knew, I think- Oh no no no no.

[Hey, remember that palms to eyes thing? He's curling back over his knees doing that thing again, doing a little laugh sob that sounded absolutely terrible.]

Do you know who told me I was alive? Neji. Because I killed him.

Wh--

[That is literally the only sound to make it past her lips before she's struck completely dumb. Her hands jerk off his shoulders as if she were suddenly electrocuted. But after a few seconds, they come back down attempting to pull him in for a hug.

The silence stays as she shakes her head, long red hair swaying with each movement. It's a few minutes before her voice sees fit to return.]

But... no, you wouldn't. Not another Konoha shinobi. He must've been mistaken.

[He's totally tense in the hug, but not trying to escape this time, more of those unpleasant laugh sobs as he rocked a little.]

I started a war Kushina-nee. A war.

[Her hold on him is loose, wondering if he was coming unhinged. But there's still a heaping pile of concern even as she grasps at straws. How she knew him back home and how she knows him here were what held more weight in her mind. She remembered the kid who dreamed of being Hokage, who would put his comrades first. Who did put his comrades first.]

But... that's impossible. You wouldn't do something like that. I know you wouldn't. Maybe I should ask Tsunade to check on you, make sure you're not ill. Or that Rin's disappearance hasn't been too stressful on you. Maybe you should go lie down.

Neji knows. Sakura knew this whole time. The fist time she heard my name she was struck mute with horror.

[He scrubbed at his eyes, attempting to draw deep breaths and failing because they quavered.]

And now Naruto too. He said I insulted sensei. [Because none of the rest had been news but that hadn't been fair.]

But you and Minato are so close... You would never...

[Do you see the look on her face? All sorts of disbelief and pain as her heart breaks. Maybe he can feel her arms sliding away too. See her pull back a few inches.]

Obito, are you trying to make me hate you or something? Are you even listening to what you're saying? Maybe... Maybe someone stole your name in the future and they're confusing you with someone else. It's not like they would've met you before this place. I don't think a lot of them were born yet or more than a year or two when you... when we thought you died.

[One by one she digs around, trying to find a reason that makes sense. Something that would pardon Obito without calling the kids liars. But even though the theories felt flimsy, she held onto hope that he would say "just kidding Kushina-nee!" and laugh until she punched him for worrying her sick. It was a better alternative than the solidifying stories Obito was placing before her. Killing the shinobi of the village he had once sworn to protect. Insulting his sensei. Starting a war even. No, it was too insane. But the more he backed up his ludicrous statements, the harder it was getting to refute.]

[He moved his arms, hugging his knees to his chest.]

I- there was a day, a couple months before you got here. And... people don't remember most of it. I... I remember seeing Kakashi grown up, which was... was weird. And I remember part of a conversation.

I think- I think I get why I said the one line of dialogue I even remember.

I didn't... want to think about what it could mean, but then I was stuck in a cave for weeks and there were just... hours and hours of pitch black or being attacked or or, all kinds of things, and it was something distracting.

But I think- I think that friend might have met him, because he- he left me a message. It was confusing-more I mean, before Neji told me. [He moved his hands up, tangling them in his hair as he pressed his face against his knees, practically shaking with how hard he was holding back tears.]

So I- I couldn't just deny it right off, and that- then he- and what he described- and I didn't understand- but with Rin- it's still! Still so stupid and horrible and he-

I would have had to have hurt you to do what he said and I couldn't do that!

...You're not making any sense. What would've hurt me? What's stupid and horrible? Obito, just tell me!

[She's trying to piece together everything he's said already with what he's babbling about now. But the picture's still broken, pieces scattered everywhere. She can't see it entirely. Only small parts here and there, but not enough to get a firm grasp.]

Okay. Okay fine. [He took a shaky breath and lifted his head, staring down at his knees, quivering as he fisted his hands in the cloth of his pants.]

He said- He said I'd turned into someone who- who was after all the jinchuuriki for this- this stupid plan and had killed over fifty thousand people to do it. Only reason people didn't find out sooner was a mask that- that horror was wearing.

I guess it came off or something, he didn't say, but apparently everyone is supposed to know it was me by name or something now.

[At the mention of a mask, a look of horror falls over Kushina's face. The events of the night Naruto was born flashed through her head. It was hard to believe three weeks had passed in Johto since that night. Her hands form fists in her lap, shaking slightly. Maybe this was some cruel coincidence. A part of her really wanted to believe that hadn't been Obito who had pulled the Kyuubi from her. Maybe that had been a different masked man. But there was only one way to find out: ask questions she probably wouldn't like the answers to.]

This masked man... does he know how to extract a bijuu on his own? But more importantly... [deeeeep breath] did anyone ever tell you about the night me and Minato died?

[Those were... very very bad questions to get chained together, and he went still, turning his head to look at her, because he was more than smart enough to string pieces together, a habit he was wish more with each passing week that he didn't have.

He'd rather be stupid than forever suffocating himself with this heartbreak.

His words were almost too strangled to be heard.]

No one- no one told me about that. Either.

You- Did he- You.

[And then his composure broke, what little he'd gathered, and a new sob came through.]

Tell me?

[She took another deep breath to try and put a damper on the rage boiling in the pit of her stomach. Settle in kiddo, it's story time.]

It was the night Naruto was born. Sandaime was worried about my seal, so I had to give birth in some... place outside the village. It was all top-secret, so very very few people actually knew. Some Black-Ops ANBU under Sandaime's direct control were in charge of maintaining the barrier. His wife, Biwako, and Taju were with me while Minato held the Kyuubi in. Soon after Naruto was born, Minato was going to fix the seal, but... a masked man had gotten in. He had done something to Biwako and Taju and was threatening to kill Naruto unless Minato stopped trying to reseal the Kyuubi.

He forced Minato to fly off with Naruto and leave me behind. So he was able to take me to some remote lake where he bound me up to some boulders. When I asked him what he was after, he said he was going to extract the Kyuubi and use it to destroy Konoha. Somehow he knew when my seal would be weakest. I don't even know how... I sure never told anyone. [Until now... sort of.] And then he did. I thought childbirth was painful, but this was something else. Being an Uzumaki, I managed to survive the extraction, but I was exhausted and dying anyway. I knew I didn't have a lot of time left. But I guess he wasn't taking any chances and ordered the Kyuubi to kill me. Minato finally found me and took me to Naruto while he went to stop the masked man. The whole time he was gone, I could feel the tremors shaking the house while the Kyuubi attacked Konoha. For a brief moment they stopped, and I found out why when Minato appeared and took me and Naruto to where he had transported the Kyuubi.

[As if on cue, or perhaps from just saying Kyuubi too many times, her Vulpix walked into the room and settled down at her side as she was talking about the tremors. She ignored him the whole time minus one fist unconsciously relaxing and coming down to rest on his side as she continued.]

I used my chakra chain barrier to keep it grounded. I was ready to pull it back in me and die with it, just so Minato and Naruto could live. But Minato had another idea. He wanted to use the Eight Trigrams Seal to put the Kyuubi in Naruto with some of our chakra so we could see him in the future. So he used the Reaper Death Seal to take half the Kyuubi's chakra with him and sealed the other half to make our son a jinchuuriki. I argued so hard for him to change his mind. Minato could have lived. Naruto could have lived without the burden of being a jinchuuriki. But he won that argument, the first one I ever lost. The Kyuubi shrunk and my condition was starting to worsen. So while Minato was distracted by me, the Kyuubi took advantage of it to try and kill Naruto with one of his claws.

[ Kushina paused to wipe away the bitter tears that were forcing their way out.]

We acted out of pure instinct and threw ourselves in the way, getting impaled on his claw ourselves. We lived long enough for Minato to seal some of our chakra in and to finish sealing the remainder of the Kyuubi's chakra in Naruto.

But do you know why Minato was dead set on making our son a jinchuuriki? He remembered some prophecy Jiraiya-sensei had been told about the world undergoing a revolution and a great disaster. He recognized the masked man as the one who would bring the disaster. So he wanted to leave our son with the power to stop him. I don't know if the masked man Neji and Sakura and Naruto say you'll be in the future is the same one that attacked me and the village. But if it turns out that was you, you won't be able to run far enough, Obito Uchiha.

[He felt lightheaded, dizzyingly blank enough even as tears kept coming. Because really he-

Everything that he'd believed in had apparently been crushed and tattered and strewn about and he couldn't see how here and now connected to then and would be, but there were patches of understanding, moments of maybe and he could sort of see it.

It hurt him so very much but he- was going to become a terrible person. He'd tried to make peace with it, to reject that that was him but-

But he didn't have a choice, did he?

It was going to happen no matter what he said, had already happened to everyone he cared about. Everyone had died. Even Kakashi had said so, that day, but he'd gotten better. He'd never met Naruto before here, but he could tell that something in their relationship had staggered, and it wouldn't be the same anymore.

Nothing would be the same anymore.

Everything was ruined and horrible, and he'd been so happy knowing he died a good person, knowing that he'd followed his beliefs to the end.

But that was gone now, pulled forcefully out of his hands one finger at a time, and he couldn't find a grip on that sort of peace anymore, couldn't breathe anymore.

It was suffocating him because why would there be two? What would be the point? There would be no point, because all bad things in the world, in the future, were leading back to him, and he hated it. Hated that he apparently had something like that inside him to turn loose on the world.

He hurt his family.

Sensei, Kushina-nee, their little boy he'd never met before this place. Worse still, he'd caused his blood family to suffer, had brought the wrath of the village quietly down on them with the Kyuubi and he clearly hadn't cared what would happen, what that would do.

And everyone had died. He was-

He should have died.

Heshould have died.

Because the world would have been better.

His words, when spoken, were so soft, and horribly empty, completely blank of any emotion at all.]

It's okay Kushina-nee.

I wouldn't run.

No it's not okay! D'y--

[He wouldn't run? Damn, he really was crazy. But the look on his face and the tone of his voice was incredibly eerie. Despite whatever anger she was feeling, the sight and sounds before her that she had never seen or heard from Obito ever, concern was still fighting to escape and reach out to him. Even with all the information she had known and had just been told, it was hard to imagine the Obito she thought she knew and remembered and fit him with the masked man who had caused so much devastation and ruined so many lives. Maybe that's what made her grab his shoulders again to shake him.]

Have you seriously lost your mind?! What is going on inside that head of yours?!

[He didn't fight her, going totally pliantly with the shaking, and he turned his head to meet her eyes when she finally paused for a second, and it wasn't quite like the rest of him. Where tone and expression were empty, the eyes just showed hopelessness. Not quite as empty, but just as thorough.

The tone didn't change.]

If that's who I become, it's okay, because I really shouldn't have lived, and it's better I don't if I become that person.

[And then he tried to smile, to show her that no, really, it's okay.]

See?

Don't be an idiot and try to hide behind that fake, creepy smile! [Because seriously... it's really fucking creepy.] It's not okay that you ever become that person. But it wasn't okay when we thought you were dead either. We missed you so much! [But shit that smile sends way too many chills up her spine.] So just stop it, ya know!

[He definitely earned a few more shakes before she stopped. A tiny shudder ran through her as she forced back as much of her pain and sadness as she could. The staggering amount of emotions she had flipped between combined with all the Shocking Revelations^TM in such a short span of time were whittling down her energy levels.]

006- Video; Action for Blackthorn

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holy balls so many teal deer

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