Welcome to an implusive writing session!
I don't know what took over me.
~NRK~
He was in hell. There was no other conclusion to be made.
Obito Uchiha was in hell and he never stopped thinking this even after killing those Mist sons of bitches.
He didn't stop when he'd gone back to old man Madara.
He didn't stop believing so when the man, the legend, died and left him with GuruGuru.
No, Obito Uchiha didn't stop to see all the death and pain. It was hell, after all.
No, he didn't stop but one day… One day, it was just too much to bear.
Too much ache in his chest, too much time left wondering how much meaning there truly was in his life.
Too much pain in his very SOUL. To the point that he wanted it all to end.
This world of madness, his sight of death.
He wanted out of hell and when he found himself alone for the first time in a long time…
Alone with no GuruGuru. None of the Hashirama celled individuals were around to bother him.
No Kakashi, no Minato-sensei, no Madara, no GuruGuru.
No Rin. No light for him to see.
And so, a long, shaggy-haired, boy in a black cloak held his hands together in front of him, a wooden stake held within their grasp.
Slightly tan skin, a scarred face, and a lone black eye accepted the stake plunging towards his chest, right towards his heart.
It should have been a simple action. He'd know, he'd done more than his fair share of stabbing before.
So when the stake passed through him, he grew still. Silent. Frozen in time.
And then he raged.
"NO, NO, NO, NO!" He roared within the confines of his 'room', a cave that protected him from the rain outside. "GODDAMMIT, LET ME DIE!"
He tried too many times to count. His first retry was a stab for his lone eye, damn Sharingan getting in the way. It failed not unlike his first attempt.
He tried time and time again and each failed as spectacularly as the first.
Ten minutes of failed stabbing later and Obito Uchiha curled up on the floor and sobbed. He didn't… He didn't want to be in HELL.
He couldn't stomach it, he was breaking and he couldn't even get out of it due to his damned Sharingan!
'Please…' he sobbed outside and inside. 'Please, just let me die. Let me leave this hell.'
And, for the first time in that cave, his Sharingan thrummed to do his bidding.
The swirling felt… off, though. He could feel his eye burning and the sharp loss of chakra made him realize one thing.
This Kamui was stronger than he could possibly imagine and the chakra loss… this went beyond taking some of his chakra.
It took ALL of it and asked, begged, demanded more than his body could produce.
So it forced it out of him, his right side, composed of cells from the first Hokage of Konoha, became to throb as he felt any chakra created by it taken with reckless abandon.
He… he hated the pain. It was like every pore on his body was leaking blood.
… He let it happen. He gave in every way possible. He knew that, at the end of all this, he may very well die.
He leaped at the chance and felt his consciousness slipping. Something was being taken that wasn't the usual.
One of the two components for his internal energy was drained at a crazy rate.
Obito fell unconscious at the height of the energy expel and a portal forming below him.
A portal to a land of red, purple, black, and dark greys.
The boy fell through.
~NRK~
In a land of purples, red, blacks, and dark greys, laid a castle.
A large, sharp, modern structure that was twisted by the world around it into a set of looming spires that looked like a building of thorns.
In front of the said castle was a long stripe of winding stone that extended out from the stone foundation at the bottom of the castle itself, extending out before tapering off into a faux circle helipad.
On said fake helipad stood two people peering down towards the ground below where another person stood valiantly in the face of great odds.
One of the people was a man, tall with a lithe frame that had a complementary long face.
He peered down with his yellow eyes, dressed in a tight pair of white pants that led down into brown, knee-high, boots. His upper half was covered in a similarly tight white vest that led down into a band with suspenders strapped around his top. Said vest was open to bare his chest that was littered in scars.
"Oh, my Queen!" the man said, holding his hand-less, elbow-length, gloves to his chest, biceps covered in bandages. "She fights so gloriously! Why one could even call her a hero!" A tail curled from behind him, a scorpion one that sprung out of the tall man's lower back.
His features were twisted in joy and excitement but it'd all fall away in an instant should the one he deferred to find it displeasing.
"Your words are true, Tyrian," said the other 'person' as she cupped a single hand to her chin while the other rested on her abdomen. "She is quite the heroic one, even among those people."
"Yes, my Goddess," Tyrian, the man with the scorpion tail, bowed. "Mistress Salem."
'Salem' was what could be considered a woman, baring the shape and form of one but that's where all similarities lied.
One could even go so far as to say her very soul was what one would say monstrous.
She was a bit shorter than Tyrian, perhaps by five inches, but her presence alone made her stand above everything, and everyone, in the land.
Baring a long dark dress that had sleeves that cut off at the elbows and seemed to just phase into the group for ease of movement, she complemented its dark colors with her very skin itself.
White, pure white, skin was there for all to see. Yet, it was marred by red. Veins that spiraled from her forehead down to her arms and, hypothetically, feet. Red eyes with black pupils and just as black sclera peered down in intrigued.
Her similarly white hair was done up in a wide bun that had bone-like fragments sticking out of it, resembling some kind of arachnid.
She was a monster in soul and flesh, dimming the area around herself by mere proximity alone.
And yet, light blew away the darkness in constant flashes from down below. The 'hero', or was it 'heroine', fighting as Tyrian had said.
Valiantly, she fought, twirling a long-shafted weapon that's blade cut through the darkness that converged on her very location. Large, small, animalistic, amorphous, and other kinds of forms of darkness surged forth at the barest wave of Salem's hand.
Her minions, her army, her influence on the world.
The Grimm.
There was a wide arc of light that swung around in a circle among the monstrous creatures, clearing away an area of reprieve, even if it only lasted the fewest of seconds.
It was enough for the warrior down below, a woman with fair skin, black hair set up in a series of loops at the back that tied around her head neatly in their braided style.
A woman with a long scythe that was held aloft, white wisps of power flaking off the weapon like ice crystals. A power that fended off the Grimm with its very presence, even if it was less powerful in the heroine's current environment.
A fair heroine in black, reinforced, loafers and stockings with floral print. A feminine figure of justice in a corset dress that had white trim on the bottom of the skirt portion with straps along her abdomen up to the lower portion of her chest. Her sleeves were puffy and fell down to her wrists with a space just above the chest area of the dress left open to the world.
Yet, Salem didn't consider those factors as important. No, they were simple facets of the main factor.
A large swathe of white swung around the woman's shoulders, a bright shadow that followed all her movements to create a phantom that even the Grimm were wary of.
Summer, Salem thinks the woman told Tyrian, was her name, yes? A brave woman.
A warrior.
A hero.
A Silver-Eyed Warrior who came to her doorstep and decided she was to exterminate the castle's owner, Salem.
Salem the Witch wanted to laugh. A puny woman that wished to exorcise the dark human?
It was almost laughable were it not for those accursed eyes of hers.
Salem had never been victim to them, mind you. For the many millions of years she walked this world, she'd never seen one with such eyes in front of her.
… Well, she'd seen dead ones but she was sure those didn't count.
Yet, this woman who banish Grimm with but a gaze, who's body was beyond those of her occupational ilk, who reach gleamed white, was here. She'd made it into her domain all by herself.
Salem didn't fear most humans but she was wary of this woman as one of the few who brought power to the table.
"Haa, haaa," Summer Rose breathed out in slow breaths, eyes glowing bright white as she surveyed her situation.
'... I'm royally screwed, aren't I?' she realized with a grimace before raising her hand to the side, eyes glowing, before an orb of white floated in front of her palm.
She clenched her hand around it and the white power extended before becoming a facet by fact facsimile of her weapon in her opposite hand.
She breathed in and the light crawled down her cheeks before she disappeared from her spot.
The massive amount of Grimm that had zoned in on her location all stopped in confusion. Thousands upon thousands of red eyes looking around for the hero.
They never found her but what did reach their eyes were large billows of black exploding within their ranks. Large chunks of their numbers disappearing in flashes of light that danced about the battlefield.
When the silver-eyed one appeared once more, a third of the creatures were slain in less than a minute by her weapons. Another fifth were destroyed by their own flailing comrades if Grimm even understood such a concept.
She rested her real weapon on her shoulder as the copy disappeared into motes of white that seemed to slip into her large white cloak.
'I'm running on hopes and dreams right now,' she noted, seeing all the Grimm reorganize themselves.
She'd not been touched once since she arrived in this place and yet was the one at either a standstill…
Or just at a disadvantage, really. She frowned as more of the dark animals slipped out of the shadows of others.
Form the puddles.
From the walls.
From the shadows of the trees themselves.
And she found herself back at square one. 'That makes thirty,' she noted sarcastically, these mob-like creatures not unlike one of her daughter's video games.
There was a clack of stone up above and Summer settled into stance as stone floated before forming a series of rough walkways for the one behind all this.
Salem glided down her makeshift with Tyrian staying behind at her behest.
"One such as yourself is usually not born and seen in such long spans of time, I imagine," the witch said as she raised a hand at her side and Summer frowned at the sight of a large black portal forming in the side of a cliff face.
A large scaly creature slinked out before exiting completely to reveal itself snake-like appearance.
The large, almost metallic, bone structure on its head mirroring that of Salem's hairstyle with the ends being sharp horns. It's body was long and basically that of a snake's with a barbed tail that scraped against the ground with each slink.
'Oh great, a Blastwyrm! What luck I have!' she screamed mentally, sweat dripping down her brow.
This was it. Her last stand, so close to Salem and yet barriers of black fur, scales, and slime was in between them.
A wall she could climb.
'Tai, I… I'm so sorry.'
Salem raised a hand, the creatures of Grimm raised hackles coinciding with said gesture.
"This has been an interesting development, Summer Rose," the witch said with a smile. "I guess so many generations didn't weaken your people as much as I thought."
An image appeared in her mind, an immediate motivation that returned to the Huntress the determination to keep going.
To never stop moving forward as she told Tai, Qrow, and even Raven, oh that bitch.
If she got out of here alive, she didn't give a single damn, she was dragging that birdbrain right back to the team. Tai's feelings be damned, Qrow's as well.
Even her own. Any miracle that could give her another chance would be the sign that Summer needed to drop these petty feelings.
Any sign… She looked up at the dark sky and let out a sigh.
Yeah, that sounded more likely in her he-
There was a sound of twisting that caught her attention as she opened her eyes to catch sight of a blu-Is THAT A YOUNG BOY?!
She didn't think when she grabbed him and dropped her weapon, the boy's safety her number one concern.
She looked at the sudden intruder with confusion before looking up at Salem to see… just as much confusion?
"?" the witch made a sound of confusion, arm settling back down at her side. "Where did this young man come from?" she wondered out loud.
Summer didn't know… all she knew now?
She wasn't going to let this kid die on her watch.
She slipped her foot under the shaft of her weapon before her cloak curled and shifted around to hold it for her.
'Thank you, Oz!' As she held the boy in her arms and her weapon was held aloft by her cloak. 'I'll make it up to you… hopefully.'
She needed to focus on the here and now.
"Sorry, kid," she said to the clearly unconscious boy. "I'm gonna be moving a lot with you so… sorry ahead of time?" she said, getting no reaction, of course.
She surveyed the Grimm army before her once more before breathing out in a slow breath.
White Aura sprung to life as her eyes glowed a similarly bright color.
"I don't know how you got here but I'm gonna get you home!" She said with a grin that Salem raised a brow at.
"Hmph, my interest has faded," she raised her hand and the Grimm bellowed in unison. "Destroy her!" she brought it down.
And the foggy black tempest surged forward.
Summer grinned. "We'll get home, no matter what!" she shouted, Aura glowing bright.
Neither witch nor Huntress noticed the boy's eyelid glowing red. The woman's Aura touching him reigniting his Sharingan.
So it was with a special mix of confusion, surprise, and slight happiness, that Summer looked to the boy before both ninja and hero disappeared from the lands of Salem's domain.
"..." Salem stared, slowly leaning forward as her hand began to clench.
Tyrian made the executive decision to take several steps back as a dark tower of light surged towards the sky, a woman's screams of rage accompanying it.
"I may need to find some sacrifices to comfort her," he said to himself with worry.
Where had that blasted woman gone?
~NRK~
Summer kept her eyes closed as whatever the heck the boy was doing took them… wherever it took them.
She could feel her body being bent, squeezed, expanded, straightened, and rotated as they 'moved', she guessed.
Then there was stillness before a crash.
"OOooooooohhhhhh," Summer Rose groaned as she laid on the broken pieces of a soft brown mahogany table. "That's one way to leave…"
She felt her mind fading in and out of consciousness, the sounds of voices not registering to her before she conked out.
Standing above the two bodies, and a broken table but who cared, was what could only be a woman.
Her red eyes peered down at the two, said seeing orbs were in a pale face, with stress lines under her eyes, that was surrounded by a waterfall of black, feathery, hair.
Raven Branwen stared at the sight of her teammate and team leader, Summer Rose, appearing out of nowhere with some bow she didn't know…
On top of her table.
Raven, garbed in a red kimono top and black skirt at the moment, stared slack-jawed before the flaps to her tent were wrenched open by the tiny hands of a human girl.
"R-Raven? We hear… who the heck 're these tw'?!" the little girl sputtered in her broken english. "Raven!"
Raven Branwen stared, not too sure herself of what was happening.
That said, she knew her next move.
"Get the tribe doctor, Vernal!" Raven ordered the girl to do.
"Y-yeah!" the newly named Vernal sputtered before running out, screaming out Raven's orders to the world outside.
Shaking her head, Raven moved closer to the two before truly observing the boy.
Her hand reached out and touched the scars on the right side of his face. "What the hell happened to you?" she wondered out loud but got no response. "..."
Running her fingers through his hair a bit, she noted the feathery quality in it.
'By the Brothers, you could probably call him my own son and I'd believe you," she realized as she noted he even had slightly tan skin.
Tai's was typically tan, he was like a mix between their skin colors but got her looks!
And that thought rounded around to an uncomfortable topic for the woman.
The image of a yellow-haired child appeared in her eyes. When she'd… When a separation happened, many pictures like the one in her head were sent to her Scroll over the years.
Why she still kept said Scroll…
She got up with the boy in her arms before laying him down on one side of the carpet in her tent.
She looked at Summer before sighing and lifting her up and laying her next to the boy. Her former leader's weapon was caught up in her cloak and Raven had to untangle the cloth to move the scythe away.
There was a flapping sound and Raven turned only to freeze at the sight of the old man peering in.
"Hmmmmm," he looked around before walking in, his wrinkled face peering down at Summer and Obito. "And who are these two... Hmn?" his eyes widened slightly as he saw the boy.
"What do you want, father?" Raven said, tone neutral but demanding, the response was the old man chuckling a bit.
"Well, I guess it was to see what your protege was going on about," he said, covered in a purple kimono with a black haori over it. "Though, I question if this isn't you keeping a secret from me."
Raven blinked at that before tilting her head with a frown. "I don't follow."
"My little bird," Raven scowled. "This child looks an awful lot like you, does he not?"
Her eyes bugged out of her head before she denied the accusation. "He's not my kid!" she looked offended. "What the hell?!"
The old man waved her off, slightly dull grey eyes peering back down at the boy. "Hmph, that's an awful amount of convenience."
"What in the world would you want me to say? 'Hey, dad! I popped a ten-year-old out of my cooch!' Because that makes sense!" she said vulgarly.
"You never know, women can be quite odd these days. What with their fashion."
"Did you honestly just compare me to those clueless bitches out in the Vale and Atlas capitals?" Raven stared at his casual shrug with a look of total confusion. "The actual fuck, dad?"
Her father rolled his eyes before taking his leave. "Very well, I'll be leaving your 'not son' here with you then. If what you said is true, I had nothing to be excited by."
He left with that and Raven actually felt like the world had turned itself upside down for a good amount of seconds before her tnet flaps opened once more.
"I got the doc-you alright, Raven?" Vernal, the brown-skinned, blue-eyed child asked with a look of confusion. "I guess that's why you called the doc!" she 'realized' with a smug smile, far too happy with herself..
'Someone put me out for a few hours.'
Hopefully, the doctor might have some nice 'relax drugs' for her growing headache.
"Energy loss?" Vernal asked with a scrunched up expression. "Wh't'd ya on 'bout?"
Raven cupped her chin as she listened.
"The woman's fine, I'd say she's just tired. Well, that, and all the muscle rips and such," the man said, shifting one of the makeshift implements he'd made. "She's bound to wake in a couple o' hours, though. The boy, on the other hand," he said before shaking his head, getting the slightest bit of empathy for the boy's state from Raven.
"He's a whole different case, ya know my Semblance. And yet I can't see a lot of Aura within 'em." he said, looking at Obito once more with an interested eye. "It's like he burned through it, I saw odd patches, about close to two hundred of 'em in 'im. I can see the slightest bit in those little notches, I think he just over did… something," the man shrugged.
"Overusing his Semblance, maybe?" the doctor gave a noncommittal shrug. "Haa, very well, head out."
"The whole tribe's thinkin' we're bein' attacked," the man said with a laugh. "What'd ya want me to tell them?"
"Tell them to screw off, nothing's happening," Raven said, getting a nod from the older tribesman as he left. "Now…" she turned to Summer and frowned.
What the hell had happened for her to be tired out like this? Raven hadn't even felt her in any danger. Surely, if she was in this situation, it meant that she wasn't at Patch. She had to have been on a battlefield somewhere from the muscle tears.
And then there was the kid. The doctor had more than a couple of interesting things to say about him.
For one, his entire right side wasn't his own. Raven could see that herself just by looking at the kid's chest but the doc had said that this was oddly different. He'd said that the thing had been graphed on to the boy.
But wait, there's MORE! Turns out that the kid is a fighter, definitely, his muscles aren't those of bodybuilders or athletes. He'd been a fighter with more than a few scars to show.
So was that it? Was Summer fighting him? It was possible but Raven had one irrefutable fact that made that null and void.
She'd been holding him and her scythe was in her cape. Summer NEVER did that when just fighting.
She did it when she was protecting. So she had found the kid at some point and was protecting him.
Yet that didn't answer her first question.
Who the hell was she protecting him from that Summer Rose, the literal best Beacon had to offer in close to two decades, was in such a state?
Night came quickly with her time spent watching over the two.
Vernal, her sort-of protege, had long since situated herself in the tent as another occupant for the foreseeable future. Raven didn't exactly mind but the girl had also seen it as an opportunity.
"If we train in 'ere, we might wake 'em up!"
She'd said that with a grin too! That girl was a troublemaker in the making and that was besides the fact that she was in a bandit tribe.
So, once she'd been able to procure some wooden weaponry, Raven went through drills with the little girl.
It was near the end of the session when one of the two unconscious people decided to breach into the real world.
"Hooo whowah?" Summer Rose muttered as her eyes blinked slowly, a block of blackness dispersing from her sight. "Whai… wait... " she frowned as she slowly dragged herself to a sitting position.
"What the he-?"
"...!"
"She's awake!"
The grunt and exclamation brought Summer's attention to the two others in the roo-
"!" she stared at Raven, her former teammate's face looking blank as she did. "R-Raven?" she uttered in disbelief.
"... Vernal," the little girl turned to her mentor. "Go and get some water and clothes, will you?"
"On it!" the child said, rushing out before stopping to stare at the lone male in the room. "Hm," she left immediately after.
"Raven? I-Is that…" Summer stammered a bit, Raven grimacing on the inside at the pang she had to stomp down. "Did… did you save us?" she asked.
Raven locked up at the sight of… happiness on Summer's face. The woman looked like she'd been proven wrong about some grand thing that ended up better than could be imagined.
Raven's gaze slipped to Obito and Summer followed her line of sight.
"By the gods!" the woman exclaimed as she crawled over to the boy, looking him up and down. "Mmm," she pressed her ear to his chest and held a hand in front of his mouth & nose.
She let out a sigh of relief, the thump of the child's heart and his breath on her palm settling her own heart.
"Always the mama bear, huh?" she heard behind her and turned on a dime with a smile.
"Raven!" the tribe woman flinched as Summer stumbled to get up before regaining a sense of balance that many would have found disconcerting. "Thank you if you hadn't-"
She couldn't take it, Raven understood that fact.
False praise in the context of a broken relationship was an omen if left alone.
"I didn't," she said succinctly, cutting the animated woman off. "I… I didn't even know you were in danger to use your 'get 1', Summer."
"..." the Huntress stared at her former teammate in shock at her sharp response. "... You didn't?" the mother of two said in a whisper that caused Raven to shiver before she had to look away.
The look of defeat on Summer's face wasn't one she wanted to see. Ever. The woman was beyond the very concept of 'human' in such a way that her being sad might as well have made humanity seem so.
Summer Rose should have known… Or, at least, that's what she would have felt before remembering what Raven said.
'Didn't know I was in danger to use my get one?' she blinked before realizing something that caused her to blush a bit in shame.
Enough people didn't know how different Raven's Semblance was in some aspects.
Raven could tell when people she was connected to were in trouble based on their state of being. If you were knocked unconscious, horribly hurt, or just asleep abnormally, she'd know by way of their connection.
Summer hadn't been hurt at all during her fight against Salem's forces… She'd probably bruised herself up by fighting for as long as she did…
The Huntress groaned loudly into her hands, getting a look of confusion from Raven which came down to a raised brow.
… That said, she'd made a promise, hadn't she? If she made it out of there with her life…
Raven watched as Summer's hands fell away to reveal a determined visage and the tribe woman felt her eye twitch.
She knew that look. Oh, she and Qrow knew it well. That was the look that Summer got when she was about to push something insane on the damn group.
It should be noted that, unfortunately, most of the time they DID come out the better for it.
"Raven," gods it was that tone. "Come back with me to Patch, I want us to make up."
Whatever Raven had been expecting when Summer gained her look, she hadn't been expecting… that.
"Excuse me?" the long-haired of the two balked. "The hell, did you hit your head or something?!" Was she insane?!
Come back? With how she'd cut things off, did Summer honestly think that her coming back did any good?!
Her reason for leaving wasn't a grand one but it was one she was committed to seeing through. Such a goal might last for the rest of her life, maybe it might only be for the next half of century.
That point about, she'd do no such thing as think of returning, not until…
"Oh, so your patient is up," Raven flinched and stilled, the responses something Summer wasn't close to used to. "She's…!"
Raven's widened eye state surprised Summer because her former teammate didn't look surprised…
She looked terrified and as team leader, Summer couldn't just let that stand.
What she saw at the entrance to the tent was what looked like an old man in a kimono and haori.
She'd learned those words from Raven and Qrow!
And he was wrinkled something fier…. Summer blinked in confusion.
Were the wrinkles disappearing? Did he get taller? Where'd that long sword come from?!
What stood before her wasn't an old man like she'd been expecting no….. What stood before her was a tall man, easily a foot and a half taller than Summer's 5'6 frame.
His hair was black and long, tied into a high ponytail at the back of his head. His skin was without blemish or wrinkles and was slightly pale.
Silver eyes peered back at her and Summer slowly stood up straight, silver locking onto silver.
The air in the tent grew tense as Raven's father grinned at Summer.
"Hmmm," he hummed, his former raspy voice replaced by one with a slight husk. "Why Raven, I didn't know you picked up such an… interesting woman."
"Hmph," Summer slowly circled him, moving towards her weapon. "I'm an old friend of hers, some would have called us family," the scythe-user said as she reached her scythe.
The man's grin widened some as the short woman's hand gripped her weapon's shaft.
Raven blinked and there was a crash, two missing people, and a giant hole in the back of her tent.
"GODSDAMMIT!" she shouted as she turned around to see a plethora of trees felled behind her makeshift home. "FUCK!"
As if summoned by her cursing, Summer popped up out the side of the hole.
"Hey, what'd I say about cursing?!" the woman with the glowing eyes shouted. "You stay here! When I get back, we'll be having quite the talk, Raven!"
She disappeared after that, leaving Raven dumbfounded by the sheer nonchalance radiating from her little chipmunk act.
She clenched her hands together as an hour passed.
Great. Just fucking great.
She didn't die to Salem but Raven wondered if dying to her fucking father wouldn't be more of a fucking shame.
She grimaced for what had to be the thirtieth time in the past hour before looking at the kid that Summer had come with.
Where the hell did he fall in with all this? Dammit, had the old man not come in she might have known.
And then she thought about what he'd said before looking back at the boy's face, skin, and hair.
She hesitated before reaching out towards him, sitting besides him on a cushion.
She touched his scars, the slight grooves she felt had her wincing.
'Well aren't you going to be a looker,' she thought sarcastically before sighing in pity for him. 'That's gonna be a hard thing to get past… whoever you are, kid.'
And here was, acting like a mother who was worried for the kid's love life, gods.
There was a break of a twig and her head snapped up, anticipation eating away at her psyche.
If it was the old man with Summer not around… She may very well make a mistake she wasn't sure she could control.
Then there were more of such sounds coming from the broken forest.
A large series of trees that were blocking Raven's sight from earlier and she heard the twig crunching stop.
Then she heard… talking?
"You wanna do it?"
"Oh please, ladies first."
"For how traditional you are, you'd think you'd say women should be kept safe."
"Goodness, no." Raven blinked at the voices.
What the fu-
There was a flash of light that sliced across the fallen logs before they fell away in a diced pattern.
What Raven saw dropped her jaw to the floor.
Summer and Raven's father walked back to the tent's hole with a set of curious expressions between them as they talked. Their clothes were in tatters and barely covered their chests, with Summer's in good enough shape to barely do that.
Cuts were decorating the two's exposed forms and Raven questioned if she'd gone mad.
"So you say…"
"Yes if you take the path I took, you should end up there like I did," Summer's face twisted though. "I don't understand you, though. Why seek something like that? You could do so much goo-"
"Summer," the newly made man said softly. "I've been around for far too long. I couldn't help anyone if I tried."
"... Kojiro, I hope you know what you're talking about."
"I believe I do," Kojiro Branwen said with a slight smile before both Silver-Eyed Warriors looked up at Raven's completely baffled expression. "I believe you should handle this," he said as a grin began to stretch across his face.
"I have a grand pilgrimage to take," he departed after these words, leaving a frowning Summer standing there.
"..." Raven didn't recover yet and so Summer found her opened mouth teammate sitting there.
"Raven, you're gonna catch flies like that," no effect, Summer grasped her hands behind her back. "Haa," she sighed but smiled, walking forward with her hands held behind her.
"Oooooohhh," there was a groan at Raven's side and both Branwen and Rose blinked at the sight of the unconscious boy slowly sitting up. "Wh… Where…" he slowly blinked as he looked around.
Raven stared at him as he turned to look at her and Summer, who was chuckling at him.
The silver-eyed one grinned at him, one hand coming around to place on her chest.
"Welcome back to the world of the living," she said as smiled at him, hand coming away.
… And the clothes around her chest with it.
At that very moment, Vernal entered the tent with some more water. "Hey Raven, wha…" Obito turned to the new arrival before seeing her shocked expression. "Should I… leave?" the girl while turning away. "Didn't know you were changin'."
Obito turned around-
Obito Uchiha awoke and fell unconscious in under a minute.
"SUMMER COVER UP, FUCK!"
"I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WOULD HAPPEN, RAVEN!"
Obito Uchiha awoke once more… with a little more caution of his surroundings than before.
He sat up with hands covering his eye. "... Is it safe?"
Raven's face was in her hand as her shoulders shook while Summer burned such a bright red, she might as well have been a tomato.
"Y-Yes!" she squeaked, a black robe-top now replacing her usual outfit. "A-Apologies!"
Obito shifted one of his fingers to allow his eye to peek through. "..." Once he was sure he wasn't going to be flashed in the coming seconds, he slowly lowered his hands. "..." he looked away from her still, red on his cheeks. "W-Who are you?"
Summer blushed some more before breathing in and letting out a breath.
"I'm Summer Rose," she introduced herself, regaining some of her composure. "I'm a Huntress."
She hoped he felt safe around her if he knew she was a Huntress. He looked Mistralian so he may not have the greatest experiences with one.
Obito frowned with a tilt of the head. "Huntress?" he said, testing the word on his tongue.
"Yes! I was… fighting someone when you just kind of… appeared!" she explained, getting a raised brow from Raven. "Though, I can't really say it wasn't a good thing," Summer said as she scratched her cheek.
Obito continued to frown but his eyes narrowed before widening. "Where am I?" he said suddenly, looking around while ignoring Vernal's wave from her cross-legged position next to Raven.
The tiny girl pouted. "Ya mean bi…" she mumbled something only Raven heard, the tribe woman rolling her eyes at the little child's vulgarity.
"Well," Summer shot Raven a look before looking out towards the hole in the tent. "If the bamboo thickets I saw when fighting Raven's dad is a tell, we're in Mistral."
"Eghk," Raven sounded a bit disgusted. "How in the world, I'll never know."
"Well," Summer smiled a strained smile. "I can't forgive him for what he did to you two but I came to an understanding with him. Sadly."
"There's nothing sad about that man," Raven insisted but Summer shook her head. "Don't pull your Huntress Save-A-Me bullshit, Summer. At least not with him."
"Rae," Summer said but got stark defiance in response. "... You may be right but I DO see the ability to do good in him, Raven."
Raven pinched the bridge of her nose as Obito's frown deepened.
"Mistral?" he said, confused. "Where the hell is Mistral?" the three others in the tent stared at him like he was crazy. "Where is that in the Elemental Nations?"
They stared at him and he returned it with just as much confusion.
"Ya wot?" Vernal responded with a scrunched up expression. "Wh't'd ya on about?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
"What do you mean?" Now that he was paying attention, was his voice different? "The Elemental Nations… The land bordered by the five great ninja villages? That ring a bell?" he asked the girl who blinked at him.
"Th're NINJA VIILAGES?!" She looked excited beyond words.
Obito felt the form of a cold ball in the pit of his stomach. "W-What?! How can you NOT know?! Where the hell AM I?!"
Summer and Raven stared at the boy in shock and confusion before Summer spoke up.
"Did you hurt your head?" she asked unsurely, getting a frown and a glare from the child. "N-Not… It's hard to believe… Aren't you ten, where are your parents?"
"No and dead," the boy answered succinctly in such a straightforward fashion that even Raven winced. "I'm thirteen. I joined the Ninja Academy when I was 8."
"Why the hell would a ninja anything hire a kid?" Raven asked, more out of curiosity than in belief. "What, not enough teenagers?"
"Oh please," Obito shot the bird woman, because her head looked like feathers, a flat stare. "I know someone who got in younger than I… did…" his words slowed to a crawl as it all hit him.
Summer was in front of the boy before he hit his knees, wide-eyed.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?!" she asked him, holding onto his shoulder with one hand while the other cupped his chin to face her. "Are you…" she wanted to ask him if he was okay.
To see what had caused him to nearly collapse… but the words that came out of his mouth set off all her alarms.
"I should be dead," he said quietly but nobody could lie and say they didn't hear him. "I… All that chakra taken from me… I should be dead!" his hands came up and gripped his hair before clamping and pulling hard on it.
"FUCK!" he cursed out loud, the words shocking Summer too much to admonish him. "I CAN'T EVEN FUCKING KILL MYSELF CORRECTLY?!" he growled low in his throat.
Raven's eyes widened as she saw his lone eye change. Gone were obsidians orbs and in their place…
"Whoa," Vernal said in wonder, looking at the older child's blazing red eye. "Dude, your Semblance must ROCK!"
Obito didn't hear her, removing his hands from his head in such quick fashion that Summer almost didn't stop him in time.
He'd pulled up the sleeve on the cloak she'd seen him in and wood came out of his hand AND HE WAS GOING TO STAB HIMSELF?!"
She gripped the limb inches away from his chest.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" she screamed at a child that wasn't her own in such horror that she ignored that he wasn't. "W-What is wrong with you?!" she'd said but paled.
She hadn't! She didn't mean…
Obito's breaths came out in ragged bursts and the only reason that he wasn't struggling in the woman's grip was that he couldn't. Her strength outstripped his and so he was left with one option.
He sobbed, limbs dropping at his side as he fully and truly collapsed.
With instincts born into her the day of her own child's birth, Summer swept him up before holding him close to her chest in comfort.
She slipped her fingers through his hair, the tangles strands informing her that she may need to comb it for him but that was for a later, more calm, time.
Maybe ten minutes later, she felt the thumping that was his heartbeat dip before letting out a sigh.
Vernal just sat there, frozen in shock, before she noticed something drop out of the boy's hands.
She broke out of her reverie and moved over before picking it up.
Raven, looking away for all the time that Summer took to calm the boy, turned to see Vernal with something in her hand and the action the boy took before hit her.
She held her hand out and the girl handed it over forthwith.
Rolling it over in her hand, she stopped and looked at the boy's hand.
White greeted her. A literal white-skinned limb hung limp at the boy's side.
"What the hell?" Summer looked up from Obito to look at Raven. "... I get the feeling that we're not getting the whole story," she said as she showed Summer the wooden stake.
Summer stared at it, finally seeing what had exited the boy's very palm, and winced.
"What was that doing in there?" she asked aloud. "W-Why did it come out of his skin? What was he talking about? Why did he..." she stopped at the lost question, gripping the boy closer.
Raven didn't know any of those answers save for maybe the last, unspoken, question's.
"I don't know but it might be a bad idea to take our eyes off of him," the Mistral-born woman said as she looked at the kid. "He may try something like this in the future."
When Obito Uchiha awoke for the third time, he was far more subdued.
He'd failed again, hadn't he? Like a year ago, like when he was in the Academy, like now.
A damn failure is a pretty good description for him.
His eye slowly opened to find himself in the clutches of his… erm, flasher, to be honest.
His eye, lacking the gleam of life in it, moved up to catch sight of Summer. Summer Rose, right? That was her name…
Why had she stopped him from killing himself, he wondered as she held him close, speaking to that other woman from earlier.
He hesitated before pushing away from her, their backs to the wall of the tent they were in.
"Huh?" she turned to him before reaching her hands out and holding his cheeks. "Mister, we have a lot to talk about," the woman said with a huff and pout.
He stared at her like she was crazy before she smushed his cheeks together.
"Mait! Msmop!" he said, grabbing her hands as she tried to rearrange his cheek mass. "Muh!"
Summer observed him for a bit before nodding and letting his cheeks go, the boy leaning away from her like she was some kind of diseased leper.
"The hell is wrong with you?!" he shouted in displease only to get a flat look in response.
"Excuse me?!" her eyebrow twitched and Obito watched as her hands came up again. "You little-!"
"Hey!" Obito and Summer turned as one to see Vernal giving them a pout. "Why cannun you two just go outside and f'ght?!" she was annoyed with their not violent ways of disagreeing!
Just beat him up!
Obito finally regained full composure of where he was and who he was with…
Summer was already beside the boy, lifting him up and hugging him from his back.
Obito was startled. "W-What are yo-"
"Nope, none of that," Summer said as she held him tighter before loosening up and turning his hand to look her in the eyes. "We need to talk… about a lot of things," she said, giving him a look that brokered no argument.
Obito wanted to struggle and deny her. He wanted to rebuke her words with a nasty rebuttal and negative reinforcement…
But her warmth slipped into his very being. The warmth of another human body was something he'd not felt… in a long time.
GuruGuru was like a tree and produced none. Madara had never done such gestures to the young man he'd entrusted his mission to.
The mission… Obito felt a pang of regret and pain when he thought of it.
He'd failed and given up. How pathetic. How normal of h-
"Nope, nope, nope!" he felt his cheeks get smushed again and was brought back to the present to see Summer's disapproval of his current mental state. "None of that, young man. Doing nothing but worry, feel sad… suicidal will do nothing but hurt you and bring upon the Grimm."
"... Grimm?" he said slowly and Summer stared at him along with Raven, and Vernal, in shocked silence. "What… are you talking about?"
The silence persisted before the lone long-haired female in the tent got up and walked towards him.
She kneeled before looking him in the eyes-eye. Crimson orbs searched black ones before widening.
"You're being serious," Raven whispered loudly. "You've never seen a Grimm in your life, have you?"
Obito bore a small frown. "I don't even know what that is," he looked at Summer before letting his gaze fall. "... I get the feeling that I'm not in the Elemental Nations anymore."
Summer bit her lip for a bit. "... Where, well you told us. I guess the better question is, how do you know? That is, how did you get to me? Well-" Summer fumbled a bit, trying to ask the appropriate question but coming up with too many.
Obito watched her flounder for a bit before sighing, a long, resigned, thing that stopped the Huntress's rambles. "It's because of my doujutsu," he said simply.
And it seemed that 'simply' wasn't as he thought because the trio of females looked at him like he'd spoken some alien language.
"Doufuku?" Vernal squinted her eyes at him. "The h'lls th't?"
Raven frowned as she cupped her chin. "That… that sounds like old Mistralian," Summer shot her a look. "Like REALLY old, Summer. We're talking, Oz old."
Summer's eyes bugged out. "What?!" she turned back to Obito before her eyes grew wider! "You're saying he's a time traveler?!"
Raven's visage shifted into one of complete and total frustration. "Did I say that?! No! I'm saying that wherever he's from, they know language that's old," she turned to Obito. "Say we believe that you're from this 'Ninja Academy' place. How in the world did you end up here?"
Summer threw a look of annoyance Raven's way that the standing woman rolled her eyes at.
Obito, on the other hand, raised a hand to his eye before pulling the hair back from over it.
He focused his chakra, the mixing energies of his spiritual and physical creating his main one. Red bled into his eye before black dots took their positioned spots on his red iris.
A pupil surrounded by three comma marks greeted the group.
"Whoa…" Vernal was already up in his face. "That's still so cool!"
Summer stared some before touching his cheek and tilting her head a bit. "... You called this your… 'doujuzu'?" she tried to recall his previous words but Raven's laughter and Obito's flat look had her blushing at her mistake. "I-I'm trying, Raven! Don't leave me like this!"
The long-haired woman smirked. "No, please, keep going on about his Dou-ju-tsu," the tribe woman grinned at Summer's red face. "Ah, this is definitely some sort of karma for all that crap during Beacon."
"Hey!"
"Mmmm, nope!" Raven said with a tilted smirk before looking at Obito. "So this 'Eye Technique', I think my old Mistralian is right, is what brought you here?" She ignored Summer's perked up motion.
"Eye technique?" she said as she turned to Obito-His eye was changing again.
Where those three commas had been, they swirled inwards before forming a large black circle with his pupil. Said circle then grew three 'blades' that attached to one another at the front.
Obito let out a soft sigh as Vernal's eyes grew bigger in shock.
"THAT'S SO SICK!" she screamed in excitement. "Wh't's it do?!" she asked anxiously as she moved around him to look at it from different angles.
Summer made to say that the girl, Vernal, should sit down but Obito chose to explain his ability right then and there.
"It's called the Sharingan and Mangekyo Sharingan," Obito said, emphasizing for Summer, much to the grown woman's embarrassment. "... And it let's me pass through dimensions."
The silence echoed throughout the tent as they listened to his explanation.
Raven looked him the eye once more but did so more out of shock than disbelief. "... Wha?"
"... I… That's not," Summer tried this time but came up short. "Traveling dimensions?" she said the words but they didn't register.
WHAT?
Vernal grinned.
Obito continued after hearing no response. "My Mangekyo ability is called 'Kamui', it allows me to, well, slip into my own dimension?" he said but even he was a little iffy on that last bit of information. "I… When I was… tired of living, my eye reacted and took every last ounce of chakra I had. I thought it was going to kill me and had given myself into the action of my kekkei genkai before I fell unconscious and found myself here."
Those were definitely words! Summer surmised as she tried to process everything he just said.
Raven came in for the save by starting at a peculiar point. "Kekkei genkai?" she said with a frown. "That stands for…" she struggled with the wording.
"Bloodline limit," Obito completed for her. "It's a familial technique passed down in my… clan," he wouldn't say 'family'.
Rin had been the only family he'd ever had… her and… Team 7.
'Kakashi why?' he wondered for what was the thousandth time since that day.
He didn't, couldn't, wouldn't accept that day… and yet he'd failed that plan as well, hadn't he? Here he was, in a land he didn't understand, still aching, having given up on living.
"It's a hereditary Semblance?" Summer asked, still reeling. "... Wait, didn't you say something about 'chakra'?" she asked once more, slightly more proud of that fact she was sure she said it right.
"Yes…" Obito focused. "Chakra is the energy inside one's body. It's the mix of spiritual and physical energy that I use for my technique," he explained but was once more met with lost stares. "... I get the feeling that you don't know what 'chakra' is…"
Summer, feeling the need to step up, mulled it over. "You said it was physical and spiritual, right?" Obito nodded. "Well, I'm a Huntress. We use Aura, the power of our very souls and those souls themselves, to fight. We also have Semblances that allow us special powers unique to the person, though there have been unique cases before," the mother of two explained with pride.
There! Easily explainable and competent! Tai couldn't make fun of her now!
Obito frowned before tilting his head a little, "That sounds… so discount," he admitted flatly.
"D-Discount!" Summer squawked. "Hey, hey, hey! We get to touch our very souls! It heals us automatically too!"
"There are special techniques that allow people to do that where I'm from," Obito countered. "And Medic-nin exists, so that last point is moot."
Summer choked. "T-That's!" She tried to come up with something. "Uh… have the Light and Dark God Brothers?" she said, unsure, as Raven facepalmed.
"Brothers?" Obito raised a brow at that. "Well, there's Kami. He's the god that reigns over everything."
"Hah!"
"But," Obito and Raven rolled their eye(s). "There are a large amount of other gods that handle certain duties in the Elemental Nations. More. Than. Two." he said, slightly smug as the scythe-user deflated in defeat.
"Wait, wh't kund of god does a nunja pray ta?" Vernal asked, getting a scratch of the cheek from Obito.
"... Any of them?" he offered but came up short. "Any that matter at that point in time… I think."
"If you're done wrecking Summer's values," Raven ignored the 'hey!' from said person. "I thought 'techniques' meant things you're born with but it seems like that may be different. Unless your 'Sharingan' has more techniques?" She raised her brow only to blink as Obito nodded.
"It's both," Raven hummed in triumph over her former teammate who whined. "The Sharingan has more abilities but I also have different techniques that my chakra is spent for," he said as he rolled up his sleeve to reveal his palm.
The trio watched in morbid horror as wood breached his hand. It didn't even look like the skin parted so much as it just… appeared from his palm.
Summer was at the ready should… the boy do anything… Oh.
"Um," the Huntress began to say as Obito broke off the stake and held it in his other hand. "What's your name, young man?" she asked and Obito blinked before realizing he hadn't told them.
"... Obito," he said. "Just Obito."
He didn't have a right to go by anyone's last name. He threw everything away and this was the kind of identity he deserved.
"Obito?" Vernal said, getting a slow nod from the boy himself. "Well, least yer name's n'rmal."
"Last I check, what kind of name is…" he made to bite back only to come up blank. "Who are you again?" he adapted to his lack of knowledge and grinned at the girl's twitching eyebrows and pout.
"Oh, her name's Vernal," Summer offered him before gesturing to Raven. "And this is Raven B-"
"Raven's fine," the said woman interjected, getting a pout from Summer. "And what was this about this 'chakra' you had?" Raven said with interest.
Obito raised an eyebrow.
Flames devoured a good portion of the forest they were in, a large field of destruction filled taking over a portion of the forest.
Vernal was all grins. "That wa' AWESOME!"
Raven, on the other hand, stared at the destruction wrought by Obito's apparent fire-breathing abilities. "... Fuck," she cursed under her breath as she surveyed the damages.
He was powerful for a kid, or teen if he was to be believed. And he'd done this in one breath?
Summer whistled at all the results of Obito's attack. "I can't imagine how many Grimm this would deal with!" she said with wonder.
Obito, though, stared at the very strength of his Fireball jutsu. "... That's stronger than I remember."
"It is?" Raven said with intrigue. "And you have no idea how this happened?"
Obito was silent, deep in thought. "... It's probably why I'm like... this," he gestured to himself only to realize his, now torn up, cloak was in the way. "..." he removed his upper clothing to reveal the damage.
Summer and Raven stared in shock as what greeted them wasn't one tone but two-tone skin, at least down Obito's right side.
"What tha?" Vernal moved forward and touched his back, moving her finger past the divide of his skin tone. "Huh?" Vernal voiced out as she felt no disturbance.
Perfectly matching skin texture wasn't what one would have expected.
"Vernal, that's enough," the girl looked like she'd had her fill, hands behind her head as she did as she was told. "... Kid… Obito, what the fuck happened to you?"
Obito's face didn't change from his blank expression as he readorned his tattered clothing. "An accident that left its mark."
Summer was at his side before crouching by the short boy. Obito looked at her before turning away.
He felt a hand on his head a moment later and then the ruffling of his raven-colored locks.
"Hehe~" she grinned at him, getting a confused look of vulnerability from the displaced ninja. "Well, I guess that's more we can learn about you," she said, a big smile on her face.
His eye widened.
"So these are your kids, huh?" a red-haired woman said as she crouched to look at Obito and his teammates with a hum. "And what's your name, kids?" she grinned.
"Rin," a girl with short brown hair and brown eyes said, a smile on her face as well. "Nice to meet you, Kushina-san."
"Hehe~" Kushina turned to the next person, the one beside Obito. "And you?"
"... Kakashi," the grey-haired boy said with indifference. "Please to meet you."
"Huh," Kushina raised a brow. "Well aren't you polite?" she said with a shrug.
Kakashi found a hand ruffling up his hair a second later, much to the amusement of Obito and Rin. "H-Hey!" he shouted at her, moving back away from her offending hand.
"Loosen up, Kakashi," she said. "Life's too short for you to be so mature."
"I beg to differ," the boy said as a blonde man in the background chuckled. "Hmph."
"And that leaves you," Kushina said as she turned to Obito with a tilt of the head. "An Uchiha, Minato? That's bound to be an interestin' experience," she said as she observed Obito a bit more.
"Hmph," he puffed out his chest. "Then keep on lookin'!" he grinned. "You're looking at the future Hokage!" he said with a smirk.
Kushina stared at him for a moment before busting out laughing. "Haha! Is that so?!" She said, a glint in her eye. "Looking forward to learning more about you, Future Hokage-san."
He turned away from the Huntress with a cough. "W-Well, it's whatever," he said, sniffling a bit before straightening up his back. "I need to figure out what I'm going to do," he sniffed a bit under his breath, more out of keeping his voice clear than sadness at this fact.
What was he to do… He didn't know. He barely ever knew. What was Obito to do with his life the way it currently was.
He'd need to find out about this dim-
"Oh, you're coming with me!" Summer announced like it was the most obvious thing in the world, causing the boy to stare at her. "What? I thought it was obvious," she said to him with that owlish gaze that told him he was being silly.
"W-What? But I'm not-"
"Nuh-uh, uh! None of that, mister!" she said. "Even if you hadn't given me another chance, I still wouldn't leave you alone on your own," she grinned. "What kind of person would I be if I didn't help you?"
Raven scoffed a bit away, getting a roll of the eyes from Summer.
"Don't mind her, she's secretly a softy."
"Summer, you bitch!"
"What did I say about cursing?!"
"Go fuck yourself!"
Obito just stood there, lost in the middle.
"..." he didn't understand what this woman was thinking.
Taking in a possible enemy was insanity at its maximum, why…
'... What kind of person would she be, huh?' he remembered as he looked at his hands. '... What kind of person am I?'
He… he didn't know. He'd failed so many times… Who the hell was he to do so and still keep goin-?'
"Hah?" he shot Kushina a raised brow. "Dattebane? What?"
The red-haired woman blushed as she looked away from him. "Forget you heard that."
The Uchiha grinned slyly as Minato-sensei chuckled off to the side. "Da-tte-Ba-N-OW! Why?!"
Kushina began to pull and stretch his cheeks as the two bickered.
"Ya brat, don't make me wash your mouth out with soap!"
"Ah! Ah! What kind of tic is 'Datt-Oi!" the Uzumaki woman began to pinch him. "I yield!"
Kushina shot him a skeptical look at his watery expression before grinning and patting him on the cheek.
"Hehe~ Serves you right!" she said as she pushed him to the waiting dinner table where both his teammates sat with amused and/or flat expressions.
"You just got beat by Kushina-san no problem, real great showing, Obito," the Uchiha's eyes lit up with rage.
"Stuff it, Bakashi!"
"That's NOT MY NAME, YOU IDIOT!"
"Come on, you two!" Rin separated them both with an apologetic smile to their hosts. "Sorry Sensei, Kushina-san."
"Nah, it's nothin'," the Uzumaki woman waved the girl off before pressing a hand down on Obito's head. "This knucklehead's just got a way to go."
"Oi!" Both Kushina and Minato chuckled as the former ruffled Obito's hair.
"Don't give up until the very end! That's how this guy," she pointed to the smirking Minato. "Became Hokage. Dattebane~"
He put a hand to his head, resting it on long black locks where she'd ruffled them back then.
Summer's earlier ruffle came to mind.
He breathed in deep, held it for however long, and let go.
Kushina-san… Great. Just great.
Dattebane, indeed.
They'd moved back to Raven's ruined tent.
"We'll be moving after this," the bandit leader, now revealed to Obito, said with a hand to her forehead. "You really love just coming in and wrecking the place, huh, Summer?"
The woman in question blushed as she settled the backpack that Raven had given her. "For what it's worth, I think I made it better?" she said, hopefully, looking back at the bandit camp. "Your father is going to go and fight Salem."
With Vernal here, and Obito having no idea who the hell Salem was while with her, they spoke openly.
"Yeah, well…" Raven looked conflicted. "Hopefully he doesn't come back."
"Raven…"
"No," the other woman said with finality. "Just take this victory for what it is, Summer. Don't try and push it."
"... Alright," Summer nodded with a small, strained, smile. "I'm going to make you come back, Raven. I swear it on my blood," Raven's eyes widened before she groaned.
"Don't swear on that."
"Too late~" Summer chuckled as the sound of crunching grass reached their ears and both turned to see Obito and Vernal coming up on them. "Good to see you in some not destroyed clothes, Obito."
Dressed in a dark blue kimono that had been procured from Kojiro Branwen's old set, Obito kept his shinobi sandals and had on a pair of hakama pants that were rolled up at the ankles.
He too wore a backpack, given to him by Raven. That said, Raven's eyebrow twitched at the sight of a nail on Obito's hip.
Seeing where her gaze went, Obito shrugged. "Your dad gave it to me as some sort of parting gift. 'For the son I never had, I guess you can have it' or somethin'," the boy said with another shrug.
It was about as long as his arm with a roll of chain on it, wrapped around the front of the weapon.
Where the man had found the time to do all this would bother Raven to no end.
Raven's eyebrow twitched horribly. "That old bastard."
Summer giggled.
The two took off after that, Raven staring at their backs while Vernal grinned with a wave.
"Come on back when you can!" the girl yelled. "I wanna fight you!"
Obito turned his head back with a raised brow. "Maybe!"
"So a 'yes'!"
"..." Summer giggled at Obito's look of confusion, the two out of sight a couple moments later.
Watching them disappear, Raven turned her gaze towards Vernal. "?"
"Wh't?" the girl said in confusion. "Uh, Raven? Hullo?" the girl looked beyond confused.
Raven's eyebrows rose in indifference. "Nothing, let's go and get the others to haul ass before we get found out here."
"Gotcha!"
~NRK~
Four days later, after many series of running, jumping, by Obito's preference of travel, and riding both aquatic and equine methods, they found themselves on the shore of an island.
"Welcome to Patch!" Summer said with a grin towards her younger cohort. "See the warm shores, crashing waves, and beautiful sunlight!"
"What are you, some kind of saleswoman?" Obito asked with a raised brow. "I didn't know you had it in you, Summer."
"I have many gifts," the woman said with a grin and a fist pump. "Now let's go and find-!"
"And I keep telling, no, I ain't a babysitter!"
"Qrow, be reasonable, ya drunk. I just want to go and see Oz to get an update on Summer!"
"And I said, I can do it faster, ya big hunk of lumbar! Why are yo-"
"Don't you da-"
"... Huh?" A small voice said outloud. "M-Mom's back!"
As one both male voices shouted. "She's what?!"
Up ahead, Obito could see several people arguing before the small girl in their midst pointing at them.
He'd been lucky that Summer had warned him of what was up as he looked at the child currently running at them before she came to a stop at the sight of Obito.
Lavender eyes blinked at him as she looked him in the… eye. Yellow hair set in a pair of pigtails bounced as she did so around him. A brown tunic-shirt and shorts adorned her with similarly brown shoes, all with yellow lining.
"Holy shit!"
"S-Summer?!"
Looking up, Obito saw a set of adult males running towards them.
One with dark hair in a swept back slightly spiky, style and stubble. He was a lithe man with broad shoulders, pale skin, and familiar red eyes. Dressed in a white dress shirt, black slacks, and dress shoes, he cut a weird image when Obito compared him to his twin, Raven.
Next came a man who looked like the world had given him back his greatest treasure, blue eyes brighter than even Minato-sensei's own blue. He too had stubble but it was blonde with the hair on his head being a short mop style. He dressed in orange khakis, a brown, short-sleeved, dress shirt and loafers, he looked to the world as a casual surfer and dad, what with his tan skin and child in his arms.
Said child reminded Obito remarkably of summer but simply miniature. Turning to look at the woman in question, he was face to face with a grinning girl, who was missing a tooth.
"Hi! I'm Yang!" she said as she jutted her hand out at him. "Nice ta meetcha!" he grinned.
Obito looked at the hand before grasping it and shaking it, only for the girl to be overly enthusiastic and shaking as hard as she could.
Which, mind you, wasn't much but her eagerness shined through.
"Qrow, Tai, Yang," Summer smiled at them all, like a sun. "And my little Roo-Roo!" she said to the three-year-old in Tai's arms, the little girl staring at the woman in wonder before giggling with happiness.
"Mom!" the girl's arms raised in joy and Summer didn't hesitate to take her from her husband and give her little baby all the kisses!
Obito looked on as they greeted before he found his shoulder arrested by one of Summer's hands and encouraged forward.
"I'd like you all to meet Obito!" She grinned as Obito nervously looked away from the adults.
"Who's the kid…" Qrow's eyebrows furrowed a bit before he paled. "Oh god, please don't-"
"No, he's not anyone's kid, Qrow," Summer said sternly, getting a sigh of relief from Raven's twin.
And Taiyang Xiao-Long looked relieved in a whole different manner that had Summer huffing.
"She's not that bad," the woman mumbled, getting the weirdest of looks from her former teammates. "Whatever! That's for later!" she grinned as she pat Obito's shoulder.
"And who's he, Sums," Taiyang said, calmer than before and crouching down to meet the kid. "What's up, little dude. Obito was it?"
Ruby, the youngest, stared at Obito with her big silver eyes that Obito only knew of on two other people.
"Nice to meet you, sir," Obito said respectfully. "I'm-"
"I want you all to meet my little hero!" Summer said with her hands out, eyes closed, and a grin on her face. "He's literally saved my life," she said to both men who blinked before their ocular orbs went beyond big.
"He what?!"
~NRK~
And that's the end to the first chapter that I wrote in a matter of three to four days.
This'll be more of a guilty pleasure story than an overarching one. It's really here to give young Obito a fucking break with all the shit he goes through. Like damn, give this kid a couple thousand hugs!
And so, here we are, with a changed RWBY canon and Obito on for the ride. However far along that matters.
Yes, the title will come into play in the next chapter, promise.
This was honestly just an impulsive writing session I've had. I'll be getting back to normal programming soon.
Words: 12k+.
~NRK Out~