Work Text:
Obito is getting ready to take a nap in Kamui when it finally happens.
Kakashi has been experimenting with the justu, recently; Obito’s found a few items lying around that he didn’t put in, and once he had the delightful experience of getting a cup of water dropped on his head in the middle of a fight. It makes sense that eventually, he would work his way up to eventually visiting kamui.
He falls from far up in the sky- Obito had too, back when he was first learning to use this place. He lands, and Obito can hear a faint poofing noise. Weird.
Obito sighs, stands up, and turns around.
Kakashi looks a little different to how he was last time Obito spied on him (just to see how miserable he was, of course, to reaffirm that the infinite tsukuyomi was the only option.) His hair is droopier, and he isn’t wearing his standard jounin uniform. His jacket is the same color as the vest, but it had sleeves, and a fluffy white collar, with strange red and white patches on the arms. Obito squints at him. His chakra is low, too, because he can’t sense it. That, at least, makes sense- kamui is an chakra-intensive technique, and Kakashi has the chakra reverses of a half-drowned kitten.
It’s a good thing he’s wearing his mask. If Kakashi had seen his face- well, Obito doesn’t even want to think about dealing with that. He’d have to kill him, probably, which makes his chest tighten and ache in a distinctly uncomfortable way. It’s probably because Kakashi would actually be a worthy opponent; pre-battle nerves for a battle that’s not going to happen, because Obito doesn’t need to kill him. Nothing was compromised here! They can just… share kamui, or whatever, and Obito can continue to avoid him. It’s not like Kakashi has the chakra reserves to use it often.
“Augh!” Obito yelps, exaggerating all of his movements. “You scared Tobi! Where did you COME from?”
Kakashi tilts his head slightly. His eyes crinkle up with mirth- wait, eyes? If he’s so low on chakra, why would he uncover his sharingan, the idiot. He’s going to get himself killed.
Kakashi says something in response- he’s not sure what, though, which is sort of weird.
Obito rubs the back of his head and forces out a laugh. “Ah, what did you say? I didn’t quite catch that~!”
Kakashi repeats himself, and once again Obito is at a complete loss. It sounds like a different language, almost, which-
“Stupid Bakashi,” Obito huffs under his breath. “Speaking another language, just to be contrary…”
He feels childish, all of a sudden, ready to throw fists with Kakashi because he thinks he’s just so much better than him, speaking another language to be contrary and mysterious and-!
Kakashi starts walking away, wandering off into Kamui. He’s turning his back to a potential enemy?! What kind of stupid, over-confident guy does he think he is? He really doesn’t seem like the guilty, depressed trash Obito’s been spying on for the past fifteen years.
“Hey! Don’t leave! I’m talking to you!” Obito pulls out a kunai and throws it at Kakashi. Even coming from behind, it should be easy enough to dodge. Even the freshest genin would notice a kunai, surely-
It hits him, straight at the neck where Obito had been aiming. Kakashi collapses with a gurgle, and Obito lets out a strangled gasp of air. What in the-?
Obito creeps slowly towards Kakashi’s body. Something’s wrong. He should have been able to dodge that. Something’s really, really, wrong, and he might have just killed him, and that makes Obito feels very very bad for some reason. It’s stupid. He’s remaking the world, stupid Bakashi and his stupid face will be alive again in his dream, but it’s just-
The body disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving a pile of stuff behind. Obito blinks at the trash and rubble and other junk that had made up the clone. Where was the original, then…?
Obito starts to turn around to look for him- back where he started, apparently. What’s the plan? Is he falling into a trap? He can’t see how this is tactically viable at all, and it’s frustrating. Inscrutable idiot, standing there all idiot-like, looking nothing like the Kakashi he’s used to.
“Hey!” Obito shouts. “Why didn’t you dodge that?”
Kakashi doesn’t reply. He just walks right up to Obito and picks up the pile of junk.
Obito stares at him for half a second, and then guts him. Kakashi’s eyes widen with shock; (why, though, when it was a telegraphed jab that he should have been able to dodge-?) he falls to the ground again before disappearing into the pile of junk once more. Obito looks up. He’s standing where he started again.
Obito shunshins to where he is standing. Kakashi gives him a little wave. Obito ignores the impulse to wave back- something is wrong here.
Obito examines Kakashi- well, no, it’s seeming more and more likely that this is some sort of weird imposter. He squints at his sharingan- it is a sharingan, right? The closer he looks at it, the more he thinks…
It doesn’t have any tomoes in it. It’s just red. Obito’s sure that Kakashi had all three- there’s no reason for it to be like that. It’s just red- but he would have had to have Obito’s sharingan to get into Kamui, right? It’s just a trick of the light, or because he’s low on chakra, or-
Obito’s gaze drifts towards maybe-Kakashi’s other eye. He expects to see grey, cold and hard and dead, but instead he meets an eye so brown it’s almost black; he meets an eye, but he doesn’t feel like he’s looking at it, just into it. It feels like he’s standing on the edge of a cliff, staring down into a chasm so deep that it might as well never end. Obito takes a step back, his breath catching in his throat. He can’t tear his gaze away from the eye. Kakashi- no, this is definitely not Kakashi blinks, and the spell is broken.
That’s not Kakashi. That’s not Kakashi. It’s someone else, or maybe something else, unfathomably ancient and deep. Obito has stared down wizened shinobi; he’s stared down Uchiha Madara, he’s even looked tailed beasts in the eyes. Somehow, all of them feel young compared to this imposter.
Obito focuses on his chakra (or lack thereof) again- the man isn’t just suffering from chakra depletion. He has less chakra than a plant. No, not just that; he is completely void of any chakra at all. He’s like a hole in the universe; a little bubble that chakra cannot penetrate.
The man takes a step towards him, and Obito backs away some more. He’s starting to think that perhaps his lack of caution is deserved. The man squints his eyes at Obito, puzzling something out. It makes his skin crawl. Then slowly, he turns his back to Obito again and walks to the pile of junk that had made up his clone. He gathers it up, humming approvingly at something, and then looks at Obito expectantly.
He says something else in the strange language. Obito is starting to think it’s the only one he speaks.
“Who are you?” Obito asks, just to be sure. The man chatters back in the strange language.
Obito slowly takes a step towards the man. “You’re not scared of me,” he says. “Even though I killed you twice. I did kill you, didn’t I…? You just didn’t stay dead.”
The man says something back, apparently satisfied by the one-sided conversation.
“You have a scar,” Obito observes. “And grey hair, and a red eye, and you’re mostly the same colors as him, too. You look a lot like Kakashi, but you’re a little softer. And your left eye is weird. Well, my left. Your right.”
The man hums, maybe in agreement, even though they can’t understand each other. He pulls out a small electronic device; the text that blurs across the screen is foreign to Obito’s eyes. It seems advanced.
“Are you human?” Obito asks, even though the man obviously can’t understand him-
He laughs.
“Ah, well- it’s been a while since anyone’s asked me that!” the man says cheerfully, slipping the device back into a pocket. “I suppose that depends…”
“Wh- you talk!” Obito yelps, scooting back. “Could you understand me this whole time, and you just-!”
“Nope, nope, just fixed it,” the man waves him off. “I’ll be out of your hair in a bit, too. Just needed to make a pit-stop on my way… the new season is a little far from where I am, and if I fall through the void for too long, I’ll get distracted and just end up back home.”
“...right,” Obito says, like he understands any of that. “Right! Um. I’m- Tobi?” He only barely manages to stop himself from giving out his real name.
The man looks at something above Obito’s head- Obito looks up too. There’s nothing there.
“Huh,” says the man. “I would have thought- Obito’s a pretty name-like tag, yeah? Well, it’s nice to meet you, Tobi!” He beams at Obito with a smiles so brilliant it must be forced, and Obito’s heart stops.
“Obito?” he squeaks. “How- how- I mean, no, no, I don’t know what you- I’m-”
The man stares at him. Obito fixes his eyes squarely on his red eye. It’s bad to look directly at a sharingan (you can get put in a genjutsu) but Obito also has a sharingan, and he’s fairly certain that the man does not.
“I’m Etho,” he says.
“Nice to meet you, Etho!” Obito says. “And uh. I guess you can call me Obito. Since you figured it out. Did I know you, before…?”
Etho gives him a look that he doesn’t quite know how to interpret. “I’ve never been here before. I’m just passing by.”
“Right, right,” Obito chuckles nervously. “Where’s your final destination?”
“Hermitcraft,” Etho says. Obito does not know where that is. He decides not to ask.
Etho slips down onto the ground and sits criss-cross. He pulls out the device again, types something into it on its small keyboard, and smirks before slipping it away once more.
“...have you heard of Kakashi?” Obito asks.
“Who?” Etho glances at Obito.
“Hatake Kakashi,” Obito says. “...you look like him.”
“Do I?” Etho muses.
“Yes,” Obito says. “...he has a sharingan.”
“Sharingan?” Etho raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I gave it to him…” Obito trails off.
“Is that a modded thing?” Etho asks.
Obito does a double take. “Wait, you don’t- sharingan? Red eye with the tomoes? Uchiha kekkei genkai?”
Etho shrugs. “Never heard of it.”
“You’re kidding me,” Obito barks out a laugh. “You- you’ve never heard of the sharingan.”
“Nooo,” Etho says, examining Obito. “...have you ever left this world?”
“Left this world-?” Obito repeats, incredulous. “Are you an alien? Are you from another planet?”
“Eh,” Etho says. “...my red eye is normal.”
“You have a scar over it,” Obito says.
“Yeah,” Etho says. “I poked myself with a stick.”
“Is the other one not normal?” Obito asks.
Etho shrugs. He reaches into a pocket, and pulls out a few carrots. They’re weird and yellow and shiny and gross looking. He munches on them idly, eyes fixed somewhere out in the distance.
Obito bites his lip, and slowly sits down next to him. He has a feeling that if Etho decided to do something to him, it wouldn’t matter if he was ready to fight or not.
Obito wonders how he got here without his sharingan. That should be impossible- and yet, he’s never even heard of it. Well, he might be lying, but Obito finds that he trusts him, for some odd reason. Maybe he is under a genjutsu.
Etho glances at Obito. “Want one?”
“I’m good,” Obito grimaces. “...you never told me if you were human or not.”
“...well,” Etho says slowly. “I think there’s- it’s funny not to tell people, you know. I like not telling. It adds an air of mystery to stuff, you know, makes life fun.”
“The world is hell,” Obito snaps, bristling at the implication that living could be made bearable by a few jokes. “You’re not making it better by lying about your identity.”
“I’ve been to hell,” Etho says. “It’s actually not bad.”
Obito stares at him. Etho stares back, and Obito makes sure to stare at his red eye.
“...what are you?” Obito asks again.
Etho sighs- a long, drawn-out affair. He runs a hand through his hair and takes another bite of his carrot. He’s pulled down his mask to eat. Obito can see his entire face. He looks human enough. He opens his mouth- Obito can see his teeth, but no tongue; past the teeth, there’s just a dark expanse.
“Are you empty inside?” Obito asks, brow furrowing.
“Yeah,” Etho admits. “...I’ve been around for a while. I’m- I’m like the void incarnate, you could say. Like, a human shell around void.”
“What,” Obito says.
“I was around for the first world,” Etho says. “Before the end. Before humans. Before hell, even.”
“ What.” Obito says.
“You know how it goes,” Etho says. “Everyone’s a little weird. I found my way around things well enough. If I had to say it, one way or another… I’m human.”
“Wh-,” Obito says. “What are you- no.”
“I’m just as human as you, in the ways that matter.” Etho says.
“No,” Obito says.
“I am,” says Etho with such confidence that Obito can hardly find it in himself to argue.
Obito sighs, slouches over. Etho offers him a carrot again. He shakes his head.
“So. You’re a- you’re an ancient being- void?” Obito checks.
“Void, yeah,” Etho nods.
“You’re an alien made out of void who was alive before humans even existed,” Obito summarizes. “And you look like Kakashi because…?”
“I don’t know, do I?” Etho asks, amused.
“YES.” Obito says. “Look-!”
He opens a portal and checks around for Kakashi. Not at the memorial stone, not at his apartment, not with Gai- ah! At the hospital, sleeping. Obito gestures to him, and Etho peers through the portal curiously.
“Oh, snappers,” Etho says. “He does kind of look like me.”
“ You look like him,” Obito says.
“I can guarantee you that I was around before he was,” Etho says.
“Well- maybe,” Obito sniffs and closes the portal.
Etho bites into another carrot. “So this is like, another dimension in this world, right?”
“Yes?” Obito squints at him. “I think. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who can use it. And Kakashi, I guess, but only because I- you know.”
“Not really,” Etho shrugs. “Do you spend a lot of time here?”
“Yeah,” Obito says. “It makes me pretty much invincible when fighting, because I can keep my body here, and like, not get touched…”
“Cool,” Etho says. “I thought it was the end, but besides the void, there’s not much end stuff here. Must be one of those modded dimensions.”
“Yep,” Obito says, like he knows what’s going on.
Etho glances at him. “Earlier… you said something about the world sucking? Or something.”
“The world is hell,” Obito says. He’s not as confident as he was earlier, though. “I’ve seen it.”
“It can be,” Etho shrugs. “Like I said, though, I’ve been to hell. It’s not that bad.”
“You’re bringing this up because?” Obito huffs, looking away.
“Well, I disagree, I guess,” Etho shrugs. “From my experience… well, it’s not that bad, you know?”
“...how old are you?” Obito asks.
Etho laughs. “Old enough.”
“You’ve seen a lot, I bet,” Obito says.
“Sure,” Etho agrees. “A lot of good, a lot of bad. That’s the way the Universe is.”
“If you could,” Obito asks carefully. “Would you fix it?”
“That’s vague,” Etho chuckles. “...care to elaborate?”
“If you could put everyone in a dream,” Obito says. “Where everything was perfect, and they were happy, would you do it?”
“Nah,” Etho shrugs. “I think it’s fun when things go wrong.”
Obito stares at him. “You- have you- you don’t mean that.”
“I do,” Etho says. “I play a lot of games. Most of them end badly. There’s no feeling quite like that. I wouldn’t keep playing if I didn’t like it.”
“Do people die?” Obito asks.
“Well, sure,” Etho says. “ I’ve died. That’s part of the game.”
“...I see you got better,” Obito observes.
Etho snorts. “If I wanted, I could live a perfectly comfortable life without danger, physical or emotional or whatever sort. I’d get bored pretty quick though. I like to spice things up. An illusion of a perfect world… it might be nice for a while, but I think most people would get tired of it.”
“...I wouldn’t,” Obito says. “There’s so many things- there’s people- it’s different.”
“I guess,” Etho says, tilting his head consideringly. “Things feel very permanent when you’re in the heat of the moment.”
“You’ve seen a lot,” Obito says.
“Yep,” Etho agrees. He smiles at Obito. “I really think the Universe is beautiful.”
“Despite it all…” Obito muses.
“ Because of it all,” Etho corrects him. “You know, one of the first things I ever learned…”
Obito stares into his brown eye, lets himself fall into its unimaginable depths. He lets himself bask in the emptiness of a man who is happy, despite- because- despite it all. He hangs onto his words, waits with baited breath for him to finish his statement.
“The Universe loves you, because you are love.” Etho says, just as surely as he says that he’s human.
“Cheesy,” says Obito. “But okay. Okay.”
“Well!” Etho says, standing up. He claps his hands on his pants to wipe off dust that isn’t there. “I should get going!”
“Okay,” Obito says, staring at his hands. “I- okay.”
“Have a good life,” says Etho. He smiles at him.
“...I’ll do my best,” Obito says.
Etho puts his carrots away, pulls his mask back up, and walks to the edge of the platform. He pauses for a split second, and then jumps. Obito shunshins to the edge and watches him fall. He disappears into the void.
Obito takes his mask off and stares.
A portal opens, a little ways behind him; Obito whirls around, putting his mask back on as fast as he can, pulling out a kunai. Just in case. He may have doubts about this whole thing, now, but he’s not going to give up his identity to Kakashi- not only would that be poor planning, it’d be unbearably awkward to explain why he’s been hiding from him for all the years.
A medical chart falls through, and the portal closes.
“Cool,” says Obito, relaxing. “That’s fine, I guess.”
He takes his mask back off, and lies down. He’ll deal with this existential crisis later- first, he is going to take the nap he was planning to have.