Chapter Text
In another world, another time, Uchiha Obito grins at the words written on the inside of his right forearm.
Who the hell are you?!
It was unconventional, to be sure, but it was still his in a way that would never be anyone else’s—his soulmate’s words for him, even if it is a bit rude.
He goes on with his life, happy with the knowledge that somewhere out there, there’s a person destined for him and only him. His clan members tell him not to hope so much because a lot of people die without getting to meet their soulmate, but Obito ignores them because he’s sure, as sure as the sky is blue and his name is Uchiha Obito, that he will meet his soulmate.
So he tries to be a good shinobi. And he makes friends (Rin) and a rival too (Kakashi, even though he never acknowledges it). He has a team that’s like a family to him and a sensei with a really cool girlfriend that acts like a big sister to them. Obito is happy.
And then he goes on a mission that goes every bit as wrong as it could get, and he ‘dies’, and his teammates leave him, and he’s picked up by an old man saying he’s the Uchiha Madara himself. Of course Obito doesn’s believe a word out of that guy’s mouth, only an idiot would do so.
But then Rin dies, and so does the light inside him.
He kills many people; his sensei, innocent civilians, shinobi, blood-thirsty men, and innocent children alike. Obito doesn’t discriminate.
His soulmate must hate him, but that’s alright. When his plans are done and the infinite tsukuyomi is in place, he’ll finally get to know who they are, maybe even introduce them to Rin. He’s sure they’ll get along.
And then Uzumaki Naruto comes blazing into the picture, with the face of his long-dead sensei and the spirit of the woman he once affectionately called Kushina-nee.
Obito’s face is covered with his mask, something that he is grateful for because he doesn’t think—even with all of his experience and the blood on his hands—that he could have hidden the shock that contorts his features when his former sensei’s daughter opens her mouth, finger rudely pointed at him.
“Who the hell are you?!”
It hits him. Not like a water bullet lodged in his chest, but a tidal wave of pure, gut-wrenching rightness. For a moment, everything in the world is good and just and right. There is nothing in this world but Obito and his soul singing into the void separating him from his soulmate, reaching with grabbing hands to take what’s his.
He wonders if she feels it, too. Feels his soul calling out to her. It is a different kind of torture to restrain himself from doing anything rash. It would be so easy to cross the distance and speak, let her know who he is, what he is.
But then he looks at sunshine-yellow hair and whiskered cheeks and achingly familiar blue eyes, and his soul slams back into his body so fast that he has to take a furtive step back to regain his bearings. He looks once more to his soulmate, at the determined tilt of her chin and the soft cascade of golden strands in the wind—and oh, he despairs because fate truly has a way of making things difficult for him.
Uzumaki Naruto is his soulmate.
Uzumaki Naruto is his soulmate.
He says nothing, unwilling to let her know who he is and how their souls are the missing pieces of each other. He wants to open his mouth and say something, anything, but his mind refuses the action, already spinning its gears and concocting schemes and plans. His eye tracks his soulmate and her team as they gear up to fight, but he makes no move to attack.
Instead, he disappears into Kamui, and proceeds let out overpowered fire jutsus until he’s out of breath and his surroundings are near-decimated.
Then he sits among the rubble and ash and dust, and proceeds to change his sixteen year long plan.
Sorry, Madara.
In the end, despite everything he’s done, Madara still comes back, manic grin in place and raw power pulsing through his reborn form that Obito is sure every sensor within the vicinity is convulsing in fear. The shinobi are gathered before them with Obito’s soulmate at the forefront of the army. He would almost laugh at the irony of it—if what he is about to do wasn’t so daunting.
Kakashi is still looking at him with those sad, shocked eyes, the other half of Obito’s eyes visible on Kakashi’s left socket. He pays him no mind. There’ll be time later, he says to himself, to catch up and maybe pay for the multitude of crimes he’s committed.
But there is no time because Obito’s betrayal goes horribly wrong and Madara grins maliciously at Obito spitting out blood, body doubled over in pain. The entire shinobi alliance watch with wide eyes at the sudden turn of events, but none make a move to help—except one person.
Uzumaki Naruto runs headfirst into danger and doesn’t stop for a moment to think of the consequences of helping a war criminal against another war criminal. With her golden cloak covering her entire body, she looks like Amaterasu come to rain justice upon them.
Madara is as vicious as he is powerful, and even with two of them—Obito and Naruto, Naruto and Obito (who’d have known the baby he had threatened to kill sixteen years ago would be here fighting alongside him instead of against him?)—they don’t have much of a chance.
And then the Kyūbi is ripped from Naruto, and Obito sees red.
He fights like a mad man, and Madara laughs and dodges with painful ease. Obito doesn’t realize when it happened, but suddenly he is fighting with the shinobi from the alliance, when not even an hour ago, he’d been fighting against them and thinning their numbers like it’s about to go out of fashion.
He doesn’t mind it, though.
Madara underestimates him, and Obito smiles like the deranged man he is. He is no match for Madara, not as he is right now, but the old man seems to have forgotten that Obito holds the other half of the rinnegan and is capable of being the jinchūriki of the Jūbi as well.
So he does just that.
Everything is a blur from that point on. He distantly notices that Naruto is alive, that most of the shinobi alliance are still intact, and that Kakashi is still looking at him like a kicked puppy.
Obito fights, using every underhanded trick he knows and then some because Uchiha Madara is the trickiest bastard he has ever had the displeasure of knowing.
And then Madara is dead, and Obito doesn’t even have time to let out a breath of relief because one thing after another happens— and he knew he should have roasted that goddamn plant Zetsu when he had the chance.
Because suddenly his opponent is not Madara but a goddess, Kaguya.
Obito has fought wars—hell, even started some of them—and he’s killed people; rich and poor, weak and powerful, shinobi and civilian, Kage and Daimyo alike. But he has never fought a goddess before.
Uzumaki Naruto, though, bares her teeth in a grin, blood smeared on her chin and multiple scratches and wounds littered on her body. She grins at him, at Obito, even though they were enemies just hours before, even though Obito killed her parents and is the cause of every suffering she’s experienced because of her status as the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi.
She grins at him and says, “You’re not gonna back out now, are ya?”
And, well, if a sixteen year old girl with pigtails can smile in the face of a wrathful goddess, then Obito can, too.
They fight—because what else can they do—and they have each other’s backs like comrades. And if Obito doesn’t look too closely, it feels like he’s still that fourteen year old chūnin ready to take on the world with his orange goggles and an easy going grin plastered on his lips.
Then Hagoromo, the Sage himself, appears, and it’s up to Naruto and Sasuke to seal Kaguya.
The fight is bloody. It is brutal. He’s seen his fair share of bloodshed, has seen worse in his years as a criminal, yet this battle is the most important one yet to come. His eyes sting from overuse, but that doesn’t stop him.
Obito helps, but it’s not enough because Uchiha Sasuke dies and everything goes to hell.
Obito is the one to pull Naruto away from Uchiha Sasuke’s corpse, kicking and screaming. She yells and spits curses at him, but there is nothing she can do because everyone else is dead and there is only the two of them left to fight a one-sided war.
It is ironic, considering what they are to each other. But she doesn’t know because Obito has yet to say a word to her.
Naruto only quiets down when Obito pauses and begins writing down seal matrixes on the ground, biting his thumb hard and using the blood as a replacement for ink. The seal was complicated and unfinished when he first saw it on one of the scrolls on Madara’s underground base. He refined it through the years, blood rushing at the possibilities a seal like this could grant him, but it’s not until now that he writes down everything from start to finish, actually intent on using it.
Obito isn’t a seal master by any means, but he’s decent enough to know that it will work— it has to.
When he’s done, the barrier he created to temporarily stall Kaguya is nearly destroyed. It only held up this long because of his remaining rinnegan, pulsing painfully in his eye socket.
He wordlessly pulls Naruto into the center of the seal, much to her protests and numerous questions—which he doesn’t bother answering, much too spent at having to create the seal.
Obito looks up at Naruto’s defeated face and sighs. She looks at him bewilderedly, blood caked on her face and clothes. He’s glad she will at least have the Kyūbi to keep her company after what he is about to do, where he is about to send her—or rather, when.
Just as he activates the seal, his barrier breaks and Kaguya’s presence envelops them, even with the goddess kilometers away. Naruto panics and tries to take a step away from the glowing seal, but Obito stops her with a stern look that she reciprocates stubbornly.
He doesn’t give her any time to protest because he uses his rinnegan for the last step for the seal to be completed, and then Naruto is slowly blanketed in a glowing cloak.
“Wha—? Hey, what the heck is this?!”
Obito licks his cracked lips, a content smile on his face forming as blood trickles down from his eyes. He is exhausted, in both mind, body, and soul. Once this seal does what it was intended for, he knows he will die.
He can feel Kaguya nearing them, just seconds away. She would reach them as soon as the seal is complete. Naruto is translucent now, which means it’s only a matter of time before she disappears. He meets her gaze, mismatched eyes on blue.
Obito doesn’t have to do anything anymore. The seal is done and Naruto won’t be able to do anything about it, even if she enlists the help of the Kyūbi. He doesn’t have to burden Naruto— shouldn’t burden Naruto—with the knowledge of who he is, of what he is to her.
But, well, Obito wants to be selfish one last time.
“Don’t worry,” he says, catching her attention once more, “I’m sure you can do it.”
Naruto’s face scrunches in confusion at his words, but he sees the moment she realizes what his words signify. Her hand clasps the inside of her right forearm, eyes wide with disbelief. She opens her mouth to say something, but her words are lost to the wind because as soon as the first syllable leaves her lips, she is gone with a burst of light.
Obito collapses into the dirt, alone, just as Kaguya reaches him. He allows himself to feel a small sense of victory before he closes his eyes and welcomes the embrace of death.
In this world, a different time, Uchiha Obito grins at the words written on the inside of his left forearm.
Oh, thank god you’re still here! I really thought the old man woulda gotten ya by now!
It was unconventional, to be sure, but it was still his in a way that would never be anyone else’s—his soulmate’s words for him, even if it is really weird.
What old man was his soulmate talking about? Obito hopes he won’t be the target of some pedophile in the future.
His cousins tease him about it, saying how strange his words were. He only scowls at them and yells how his words weren’t weird (even if it totally was, but Obito’s not gonna go around admitting that to people).
At least his words aren’t boring and typical like theirs are. One of his cousins has a vague ‘hello’ written on their wrist. When Obito found out about it, he had laughed and said at least his words were unique. And, well, he did get scolded by some of his aunts for making fun of his cousin’s word, but they started it, so he doesn’t feel any regret for saying it.
The only time he apologizes for it is when his grandmother scolds him about it. Obito thinks it’s unfair that he has to apologize, because when his cousins tease him about his words, no one else bats an eye about it. But his grandmother told him to apologize, so apologize Obito did—with as much teeth gritting and reluctance as he could muster.
He’s formed the habit of covering up his words with long-sleeved shirts or jackets—not because he’s ashamed of it or anything! He just doesn’t want some stranger reading it and then saying those words to him as a joke. (It’s totally not because one of his cousins decided it’d be a good idea to prank him like that, no, not at all. Though Obito did beat him up, even if he was just as injured—if not more—after the fight.)
Obito’s got no time for them anyway, what with the first day of the Academy only a few weeks away. He’s been practicing up on his kata and watching some of his aunts and uncles train. If he manages to impress his sensei’s enough, he’ll be a step closer to being Hokage!
The first time Obito sees Rin, he’s so sure, with every fiber of his being, that she is his soulmate.
But then her first words to him are “it’s nice to meet you,” instead of the chicken scratch of words written on his skin. And Obito, despite himself, feels the weight of disappointment on his shoulders.
But suddenly there’s no time to be disappointed, because then some kid with gray hair proceeds to make a mockery of Obito in front of their entire class by beating him in a spar so one-sided it can hardly even be called a spar. Then and there, he wipes away the spit that accidentally slipped from his mouth and declares Hatake Kakashi his rival.
The boy hasn’t said a word to him yet, so Obito dares to hope, even if the chances are unlikely, that Kakashi might be his soulmate. He seems worthy enough to be his soulmate (and Obito will never admit it, even under kunai point, but Kakashi is actually a bit cool—but only sometimes!).
And yet, his words aren’t the ones Obito had been hoping for, but the disappointment is easier to ignore this time.
War is declared. Kakashi graduates in less than a year. Time passes by, and Obito is still lingering in the back of the crowd. Not strong enough, not smart enough, not good enough—never enough.
He tries to console himself with the thought that his soulmate will surely think Obito is good enough for them, because they were made for each other, right? So it’s only logical to think that he’ll be enough for his soulmate.
He graduates at the bottom of the rankings. Rin, of course, is top kunoichi because she’s amazing like that. Obito admires her, like a lot, but people seem to mistake that as him having a crush on her. And that might have been the case if things were different, but Obito’s only got eyes for his soulmate—even if he’s never met them before. It would feel like a betrayal of sorts if he had a crush on anyone else.
Team placings happen, and it’s just his luck to be placed with his rival, though the addition of Rin makes things bearable. His sensei’s pretty cool too, and his girlfriend kind of terrifies Obito, but she’s nice to them all and lets them call her onee-san. Obito prefers calling her Kushina-nee.
Being in a team is not like what he expected. The moment he found out he was being placed in a team with Bakashi (not Kakashi because he’s an idiot, and Obito regrets ever thinking he was cool before), he knew it was going to be terrible.
In the end though, it’s not really that terrible. He’d even go so far as to say it’s a bit enjoyable (Obito loves it).
So, of course, since the world hates him, Obito goes on that mission with Bakashi and Rin, and everything falls apart.
Obito is ready to die. His mind is foggy and he had already accepted his fate. It wouldn’t have mattered that he hasn’t met his soulmate yet, a lot of people die without ever meeting theirs, especially in their line of work.
A part of him wants to send a telepathic message to his soulmate to apologize for not living long enough to meet them, but he tells himself that this is okay. They’ll understand. After all, he put himself in this situation so he can save his teammates. Obito’s sure his soulmate will understand. Maybe in his next life, he’ll be able to meet them. He hopes they’re kind and understanding like Rin and Minato-sensei.
There is shuffling that can be heard and rocks falling, probably displaced, but he pays it no mind. He’s going to die anyway, what’s the point of worrying over something he can’t even see.
Obito feels the cold tendrils of death creeping up on him. He was about to succumb to unconsciousness when a loud, overly cheerful voice cuts through the haze of his mind.
“Oh, thank god you’re still here! I really thought the old man woulda gotten ya by now!”
And he knows those words, though not the voice of the speaker, because they’ve been etched on the inside of his forearm for as long as he can remember. Scratchy, chicken-like penmanship that’s only worse than Obito’s own handwriting by a small margin.
He can’t see anything because his eye is gone (given to Bakashi, but Obito will never regret that decision) and the remaining eye on his skull is crushed by the large rock along with half of his body. It would take a miracle and then some for him to have a slither of a chance to get out of this alive.
Obito tries to speak, but his mouth is full of blood and dust, and his throat feels choked up. His lungs can barely intake air as it is, dust particles clogging his airways and making it harder to breathe, let alone speak. But he tries anyway. Say what you will about Obito, but he’s a stubborn guy through and through (or, at least, according to Bakashi he is. Rin likes to say he’s just very determined, to which Bakashi scoffs annoyingly at).
It’s no use though. All that comes out is a rasp, like the time he tried to use the fireball jutsu for the first time and all he ended up doing was exhaling a bunch of smoke and ash.
The gods must really hate Obito if they sent him his soulmate only for him to die without being able to say anything back. Obito won’t even be acknowledged by his soulmate as their soulmate, he’d just be that one guy they found who died under a pile of rocks.
More sounds of shuffling can be heard. A few pebbles dislodged from their place fall with an echoing sound near him. He can feel bits of dirt and dust falling onto his face where his soulmate undoubtedly disturbed the formation of rocks, making it harder for him to breathe. He’s long given up trying to say something, he’s sure his voice will be too weak to hear anyway (and secretly, he fears his words won’t be the ones written on his soulmate).
Really, Obito appreciates the fact that his soulmate is trying hard to get him out of this cave, but maybe they shouldn’t try too hard. The idea of getting crushed even more by these large boulders isn’t a very appealing idea.
Time is a tricky thing to discern in his current state. Maybe an hour has passed since he heard the voice of his soulmate, or perhaps only a few seconds. It’s difficult to tell. His mind is still foggy. The last remnants of consciousness from when his soulmate roused him is slipping from his fingers like sand.
Obito tries to stay awake, really, he does. But he can’t ignore the fact that he is dying and half of his body is crushed and he can’t feel anything nor see anything.
He tries, but his body betrays him and his mind becomes blank as his consciousness fades into nothing.
He thinks he hears something just before he slips away—something that suspiciously sounds like his name.
The first time Obito slips back into consciousness, he thinks he’s in hell.
Everything is dark. He can’t see anything, and his body is freezing in the cold temperature.
This situation is not very ideal at all. Obito doesn’t necessarily believe in heaven or hell, but there was no way he should be conscious right now. He died, that’s something he’s sure of. There was no way he could have escaped his situation under the boulders and lived with half of his body flattened. Which brings him to the conclusion: since he can still think, then this must be the afterlife.
And he’s feeling pretty miserable right now. What else is said to be pretty miserable in the afterlife? That’s right, it’s hell.
Case in point, Obito is in hell.
Or, that was his first thought, until a loud voice interrupts his inner monologue again.
“Hey, you awake? I can feel your chakra bein’ all fuzzy and stuff, which means you’re awake, right?”
He knows that voice.
And, yeah, he’s only heard it once in his entire life, and he might not have recognized it if not for the way something in him tells him that the voice just feels right, but Obito knows the voice belongs to his soulmate.
Which means that he is not... dead.
He doesn’t have any more time to ponder on how he’s even alive because he feels something poking him in the shoulder. Once, twice, and then another one before the sensation becomes too much for him and he decides to just talk.
Except, that seems to be the wrong thing to do because his mouth and throat are drier than the deserts of Suna, and Obito’s attempt to speak ends up with him sounding like Minato-sensei when he chokes on ramen after Kushina-nee said something rather embarrassing. Which is not a very nice sound to make. He certainly won’t be making any good first impressions with his soulmate.
Then again, his soulmate’s first impression of him is finding him half dead under a pile of rocks and having to save his sorry ass—and actually managing to do it. Compared to that, well, sounding like he’s choking on sand is an afterthought at best.
Obito hears something like ‘hold on!’ in between his coughing fit, but he can’t be sure because his attention is wholly focused on not dying by choking on air. God, the embarrassment he’ll face in the afterlife if his soulmate saved him only to have him die by choking on nothing.
And then his head is being supported to tilt upward and something is pressed against his lips. While Obito’s sure that in normal circumstances it’d taste like bland river water mixed with the aftertaste of metal, right now it tastes like the cool spring water from a holy mountain—absolutely divine.
He drinks like a dying man—which he is. Drops of water escape his mouth and fall to his chin, but even the sensation of cool water on his skin is a bliss. Obito’s sure he can almost cry tears of joy if his eye wasn’t covered by something and his left eye socket isn’t empty. He doesn’t stop gulping down water until there’s nothing left for him to drink.
He lets out a loud, happy sigh of relief when he’s finished, letting his head fall back to wherever he was laying on before.
“Man, you finished that in just three seconds,” his soulmate doesn’t bother lowering their volume.
Obito lays still, heaving in heavy breaths. He can feel, even without being able to see, his soulmate’s eyes boring holes into him. They must be waiting for him to say something, maybe thank them for saving him or for giving him water. It’s a good thing he’s in such a bad state because it gives him time to think of a proper response without seeming rude.
He needs to think of something nice to say, something that would sound good as words written on his soulmate’s skin—even though it wouldn’t exactly look nice because Obito’s handwriting is atrocious no matter how much Rin had tried to help him with it.
He opens his mouth to say something, but no words come out. So he tries again, closing his mouth and swallowing thickly before opening it again. Like before, though, no sound comes out.
Thanks for saving me. There. Easy enough to say. Barely even long enough to have him pause to intake air. But still, no words come out of his mouth. Really, this isn’t the time to be a chicken. Four words. Just four words. It’s a nice sentence compared to what some people get.
But what comes out of his mouth is,
“Your voice sounds really nice.”
Obito can almost hear the sound of a pin dropping amidst the silence that ensues after his proclamation. He knows without looking that his cheeks are flaming red beneath the bandages.
Of all the times he could have lost his filter, he chose this moment. Maybe Bakashi had a point when he said that Obito’s an idiot.
When seconds tick by and his soulmate still isn’t saying anything, he starts getting worried. Obito would like to think that the silence just means his soulmate’s rendered speechless by the discovery that they’re soulmates, but the other, larger part of him, the nastier part, suggests that his soulmate isn’t stunned into silence, his soulmate is disgusted because who would want Obito as a soulmate? Obito, who his soulmate discovered trapped under rocks with half his body crushed and half-dead. Stupid, dead-last Obito whose own clan rejected him because who wouldn’t? He shouldn’t really be surprised anymore that his own soulmate hates him, but why does it still hurt—
“Guess I should’ve expected this from you of all people. You’re pretty cheesy, ya know?” his soulmate says, breaking him away from his bleak thoughts.
His brows furrow (or as much as they can furrow with his face bandaged) as he ponders on what his soulmate meant by the first part. Expected this from him? Does he know his soulmate? Does his soulmate know him?
And what did they mean by cheesy? As far as words go, Obito thinks it’s rather sweet. Compared to the ones written on his forearm, his soulmate should be glad he didn’t say anything embarrassing. If he was Bakashi, he’d have said something along the lines of ‘ you shouldn’t have saved me, I could have done it on my own,’ because that's just the type of ungrateful bastard he is. Or maybe a haughty comment about the taste of the water. Wait, actually, that would be more likely for one of his clansmen.
In any case, he hasn’t made a move to reply to what his soulmate said, and they must have gotten impatient because they speak up again. “Are you always this quiet? Cause I could’ve sworn Kaka-sensei once said that you’re not, and now you’re just doin’ this on purpose like before.”
Kaka-sensei? Like before? Just who is his soulmate?
“Have we met before?” Obito asks.
“Ah, well, sorta? It wasn’t like we introduced ourselves to each other. And I guess the first time we met was when you tried to kill me as a baby—but don’t worry! S’all good! I mean, you were pretty serious back then with Madara and then Kaguya, and you did save my ass countless times so I gotta thank you for that. Heh, I gotta admit you were kinda cool. Kurama says otherwise, but don’cha worry about him. He’s just upset about this whole thing. I do forgive ya about the whole tryin’ to kill me and stuff, ‘specially since you haven’t really done any of that—and never will if I got anything to say about it!” His soulmate proceeds to talk more about things Obito’s brain cannot keep up with.
Tried to kill them as a baby?
Madara!?
If his eye wasn’t covered by bandages, he’s sure it would’ve bulged out of its socket with the amount of absurdity his soulmate is saying.
“Uhh, what...?” he says, voice faint as his mind struggles to process what his soulmate is saying.
There’s a pause, quite a long one, until there’s the tell tale sound of clothes rustling and soft spoken whispers that he strains to hear.
“Yeah... sorry ‘bout that... I know, I know... who you callin’ stupid?” He can hear a sigh, and when his soulmate speaks louder again, he nearly jolts when their voice sounds nearer. “Alright. Hey, just forget everything I said!”
Before Obito can say anything to that, his soulmate continues, “Time for introductions! My name’s Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen and training. I don’t like the three minutes it takes to wait for cup ramen to cook. My goal is to become the Hokage, ‘ttebayo!”
He’s starting to get whiplash with the amount of things his soulmate says that he just can’t comprehend.
Also, they’re a girl? Huh. Well, he doesn’t really care either way, but his soulmate being a girl is nice. She and Rin would get along better since they’d both be girls. And—wait, Uzumaki!?