Chapter 16

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SLAM!

Everyone turned back to Minato, who had slammed his hands down on the desk next to him.

"… I will say this one more time, and only one more time," Minato turned around to face the rest of the room, allowing Obito to see his face, and the Uchiha had to suppress a shudder.

The man was smiling, and somehow, it was a million times more frightening than any glare he had seen the blonde give.

"I will pay for the damages and cost, on Uchiha Obito's behalf. He is my student and someone who I have promised to protect, so I will deal with the repercussions."

Minato flashed a bright grin to the Civilian Representative, but his eyes were darkened and cold, missing their usual warmth. "Are we clear?"

The last word spoken from the civilian group was a small, pathetic, "yes." The case was essentially closed without a problem, to the elation of a smirking Hokage and the amusement of a lazy Nara.

It had been an eventful start to Obito's morning, to say the least.

The strange(and rather amusing) thing, though, was that Minato had almost immediately reverted to his normal-and-sunshine self and promptly dragged Obito out of the room, seemingly oblivious to the frightened stares he was receiving.

The two had taken to the streets, going from shop to shop, acting as though they hadn't just come out of a situation that could've escalated to something much worse.

Or maybe Minato actually had control of the entire situation? Towards the end it certainly seemed like it, and the Uchiha wouldn't put it past the man.

He had proven his power to sway well enough, whether it was through powerful and fancy techniques, calculated words, or straight-out intimidation.

Anyway, they entered almost every shop in the shopping district and for whatever strange reason, Minato was constantly trying to gain Obito's approval with the various items he picked out.

Whether they were books, clothing, weapons, random paraphernalia; the blonde was acting as though the items bought were for the raven-haired boy and not simply a product of whatever weird shopping-spree the whole endeavor ended up being.

Most of the items were practical and for everyday life, so it was possible the man was just making up for the other day when Obito had turned down the invitation.

In all honesty, though, the Uchiha felt as though Minato's sudden love of shopping and spending money here and there was his attempt at keeping the boy(man-boy) away from something. Or someone.

Namely, the remaining two members of Team Seven.

Obito sighed. He was worried about them, he really was.

Even though they were certified Chūnin of Konoha, the fact remained that they were still thirteen-year-olds that had personally witnessed their teammate and friend practically leap off the deep-end and attempt suicide.

Obito was an expert in dealing with trained killers, but add 'children' to the equation and he didn't know what to do, whether they were 'trained killers that happened to be children' or simply 'children.'

Despite that, he was fairly certain that his friends were at the very least worried for him, and he truly wanted to know how they were doing after the way their one-sided reunion had gone.

It was when they entered the 10th shop(and Obito was carrying about eight over-sized bags with multiple smaller bags within) that the boy finally decided to ask a question that had been on his mind.

"… Hey, Minato-sensei?"

The addressed blonde stopped in his perusal of a set of specially-made kunai and looked curiously at the raven.

"Yes Obito?'

"Why are we avoiding Kakashi and Rin?"

When the man winced at the question, Obito felt a small pang of guilt stab at his heart.

He had almost no doubt now that he was the reason why he was currently being distanced from them.

He had probably scared them both with his antics and blatant statement of wanting to die, seeing as they neither knew the reason or truth behind what he had done.

The raven-haired boy could only hope that the damage he had dealt to them was manageable.

"… We'll be seeing them later today," Minato finally replied with a nervous chuckle. "Just give them a little bit of time and they'll be fine, most likely."

Obito could only nod dumbly, not really noticing the fact that Minato had said that they would see them later that day.

Besides, before he could truly take the time to register the man's words, he found himself being dragged to the next store against his will.

He had to stop himself from shouting out for someone to save him.

Walking into the door of Minato's apartment, it was safe to say that Obito wasn't expecting much.

Well, he was expecting to enter, help Minato sort all of the newly bought items that were a result of the man's odd shopping spree, and go to his room to sort and plan his actions for the future.

However, that wasn't what happened.

Instead, he walked in and found his eyes strained at the rather resplendent array of colors that accosted his eyes.

"Happy Thirteenth Birthday!" Two cheery voices, a bland one, and a hearty laughter rang in Obito's ears.

He watched confusedly as multi-colored confetti and paper scraps fell from the party-poppers that had gone off, and glanced at the other people in the room.

"… Er… Huh?" His brow furrowed. "What's going on?" He wasn't aware that it was his birthday, in all honesty.

He had only been back in the past for a little over a week, and hadn't actually had the time to check the date.

So he hadn't been exactly sure when he had arrived, until now.

Kakashi raked a hand down his face and sighed. "I understand forgetting about your own birthday, but usually people get the hint when others say, 'happy birthday' with cheers and party-poppers," the silver-haired boy deadpanned.

Obito was still too engrossed in his thoughts to hear the silver-haired Chuunin.

He couldn't remember when the Kannabi Bridge mission was given to the team. He recalled it being towards the end of the year, possible mid-year at the earliest.

But did that mean he could relax? Had the war even started yet? His memory on the events prior to his supposed 'death' were too fuzzy to recall, and he found himself frowning at the fact.

He'd have to sit down and create a timeline at some point, if he had any hope of changing things for the better this time around.

"Obito?" The addressed boy blinked at the pair of violet eyes that gazed at him worriedly. "Earth to Obito? Helloo?"

Kushina. The young Uchiha blinked back a sudden dryness in his eyes, coupled with the odd mix of emotions that wrangled with his thoughts.

Obito felt an unbidden wave of guilt overtake him as he tried to redirect the automatic response of his thoughts to fall into a self-deprecating and self-loathing mindset.

He had been attached to the woman before, and while their relationship wasn't nearly as strong as what Obito felt with his team, she was still someone he cared about.

Someone he had wronged.

He had been responsible for her death, along with the death of the person she loved, Minato. The same could be said, vice versa.

It was in that manner that Obito had failed three people that he cared about, ripping from them the chance to feel the love and affection that they had likely never felt due to their histories of being orphans.

They, Minato, Kushina, and Naruto, were a family that never had the chance to be.

And who was the person to blame for that?

He couldn't help it. Obito didn't have many memories of the past to keep him afloat, and the few that he had, he was partially living for the second time.

So, his mind naturally wandered back to what had transpired and was considered in the past, even though they were technically events for the future.

He didn't want them to be future events this time around.

The redhead turned to the other occupants of the room and sighed. "I think we broke him, dattebane."

The Uchiha smiled wryly in an attempt to give a reassuring grin. "I'm fine, Kushina-neesan." When that failed to work(the raised eyebrows were enough to indicate that), he motioned to the ample amount of bags in his arms to make a point and snorted.

"I'm just a little out of it, I think. Minato-sensei kinda dragged me all over town on some sissy shopping-spree."

The named blonde gave an indignant squawk. "Wha-no! That wasn't a shopping-spree, that was for y—"

"A shopping-spree," Obito and Kushina nodded at their simultaneously spoken words, as though considering something of great importance. In the background, Rin giggled quietly as Kakashi sighed.

"A..nyway, let's leave the sissy be for now," Kushina began, taking the bags from Obito with ease(it was almost frightening how easily she lifted the no-doubt 25+ kilogram weight of the bags), "because today is your day, Obito! Let's cut the cake!"

Obito shrugged and smiled as he felt the previous hesitance dwindle in the presence of his friends.

He could enjoy this, he realized. He had forgotten what it felt like to be apart of this odd, make-shift family after Rin had died.

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