28 Fair Exchange

I was not sure why I did it, but without a word I turned my back on him and climbed onto the top of the slide. I huddled into myself there, where the playground's faded canopy could shield me from the rain.

I cupped my hand together and held them out, gathering the falling water. Taking into account what I had unknowingly created whilst under duress, what I was about to create should be pretty doable. Nature had already provided everything I needed: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

I closed my eyes and pictured what I wanted to create, its chemical bonds and orientation, atoms and molecular formula, its weight. Unlike the last time when I tried to fix my glasses, when my desperation got the best of me and clouded my focus, this time I centered my mind towards the process – channeling specific intent, step by step – rather than simply imagining the end result, lest I vomited another freaky creation.

I held the water close to my chest and felt my spiritual energy shifted into my palms, pushing and folding. With full concentration, the idea, the power, rose almost unbidden in my mind. I grasped it and it felt right, it was something like walking or breathing. I simply had to reach out and–

There.

I released a shaky breath when matters transmuted and crystallized on my palms. My eyes widened and stared in wonder as round, sturdy tablets slowly materialized. Their solid weight felt light as a feather but also terribly heavy at the same time, because that… that evidence on my palms changed everything. It opened so many cans of possibility and–

"What are you doing?"

I exhaled slowly to calm my suddenly racing heart. "Nothing."

I carefully balanced the tablets in one hand whilst my other hand grabbed my now-empty vial from my pocket. I cleaned it with the rain water, acknowledging – but uncaring – of the fact that it was no longer sterile, trusting the man's gastric acid to do its job, before dumping the medicine inside. Chances were the man would discard them into the nearest trash bin anyway, so not really my lost.

I carefully slid down the metal slide, coming face to face with a glimmering mangekyō. I fought down the violent urge to flinch.

"What's that?" The man gestured towards the vial.

"Umm... I guess it's a bribe...?" I trailed off. How was I supposed to make the dangerous missing-nin leave me alone otherwise? "These are carbamazepine," I continued in English, "an effective drug to treat your condition. You know, to achieve freedom from pain."

The man flicked my nose – which I only now realized was bleeding – though his eye was bright with interest. "What do you want in exchange?"

I tried to act nonchalant, though we both knew it fooled no one. "I don't know. For you to leave me alone, maybe?"

The masked man tilted his head in mock contemplation. "Oh?" I could almost feel his grin from beneath his mask. "Why should I?"

"Because strangers make me nervous. And when I'm nervous, terrible things happen..."

"Terrible things, huh? Did you mean like what you did to your brother's teammate?" The elder Uchiha chuckled at my confused expression, his tone reeked of something awful.

"Let's see…" The man held up three gloved fingers. "The one who's impaled through the stomach was Yūgao Uzuki, the one who no longer has a head was Kō, and the one who's obliterated beyond repair was Yōji Aburame – Sugaru, if you ask Danzō. All of them are, were part of Team Ro, Konoha ANBU unit, the same unit that your brother's in. Congratulations! You might've just become one of the most disturbed children in the history of our clan."

I smoothly averted my eyes away, like a child who was caught stealing from a cookie jar but did feel bad about it. Not really an apt comparison, since what I had done was essentially abandoning those shinobi into the mercy of Shinju – which was nonexistent, not when it was hungry – and only feeling the slightest bit of remorse about it.

I glanced down on my fingers, onto the white, unmarred skin. They used to be dipped in red before the rain washed all the blood away. After I sacrificed my blood, tendrils of wood had emerged from the ground within seconds and I barely had any time to drag Sasuke to flee and force him into sleep – sparing him from unnecessary trauma – let alone to run before the tree started slaughtering the intruders like cattle. I knew I acknowledged people – barring my relatives – as nothing more than drawings, thus indifference was a given; but to knowingly cause their painful demise… that was a whole new level of low for me.

It was strange, really. I had thought that I would be more disgusted with myself. Despite my earlier resolve and decision to get rid of the intruders, I had always clung to my moral principle. A lifetime ago, I had given my oath to do no harm and had held onto it until my demise. But now… now it seemed I was determined to break it every chance I got.

I did not know what it was about this place that made me so terrible. Perhaps it was not even this place, perhaps it was me, wholly me – perhaps vileness coursed through my blood and was encoded in my very gene. Perhaps the old part of me truly died the second time I met my demise, leaving only a cowardly shell that not even the Death God had managed to salvage.

I never deluded myself into thinking that I was a saint, that I was good; but I had thought that I would be somewhat decent – certainly better than all the people that I claimed to loathe so much.

It was ironic. Every day I had spent my new life being terrified of everyone and everything around me when in reality I was capable of doing as much damage – as much atrocities – if not more.

"So what?" I asked, "I don't care who they are – I never did. Their presence made me feel threatened, so I took care of it. It's nothing personal."

Obito shook his head morosely, his amusement evident. "Such a coldhearted boy!" he mockingly chided. He looked almost proud, and I inwardly wondered what it was that I had missed. To my surprise, the man abruptly clasped his hand with mine, the one that was holding the vial. "As you wish then, Hideyo-chan."

A vortex rippled into existence and the man disappeared into his right eye, abandoning me alone in the middle of a foreign country, chilled to the bone. "See ya!"

I closed my eyes and for a minute simply stood there, shoulder hunched, beneath the weeping sky; as if the heavy downpour could cleanse me off of my sins.

"I hate that guy…"

Well.... Obito would return, sooner or later. At least I hoped so. Mikoto could be quite terrifying when it concerned her children.

"I could devour him if you want, Sir," suggested the voice inside my head.

No, you can't, I wanted to say. Not yet.

I patted the small tree branch in my pocket with a bland smile. "No need, my friend. We might as well make the most of it." Amegakure was located between three of the Five Great Shinobi Countries and had frequently served as a battleground during various ninja wars. Its ground was saturated with blood and its atmosphere was rich with natural energy – a perfect habitat for my hematophagy plant.

I might just forgive Sasuke for smothering me to death if he continued to supply me with such useful knowledge.

"Very well, Sir. What shall I do with the branches in the compound then?"

"For now, let's just stick around the Naka River." If I recall correctly from Sasuke's history essay, a deep ravine near the river was used as a corpse disposal site during the Third War. "We'll figure things out when I get back."

I clasped my hands together. "Shall we? We have a land to devour."