Hope Flies on Wind-bent Wings

the return

Tobi looked out his bedroom window at the darkening sky. Once it was past time for the old lady to go home, he planned to sneak out.

After coming home, he had dutifully spent his evening helping Hinako with the shop and keeping a close watch and listen on everyone who came in.

As expected, the village was still abuzz with excitement and celebration. Many of them would stay awake into the night. The streets wouldn't be empty for a while. But he could use that to his advantage.

Thankfully, that wasn't his only advantage. His earlier foray around the village proved that everything was just as he remembered, including the nearly invisible measures the Barrier and Security corps used to protect certain areas from unauthorized access.

To test it, he'd gone to the jounin armory under the pretext of refilling his supplies after the last battle. No one paid much attention to him. No alarms were raised. The sensors did not detect an intruder.

Tobi pulled the curtains shut and paced out into his living room, running the plan through his mind again.

He needed all the advantages he could get. Even if everything went his way, this step was impossible to take back. At best, he'd find nothing, and the task would go smoothly enough to give him several hours' head start before Minato caught on.

But Tobi knew it wouldn't go the best way. He'd felt a growing unease ever since Obito told him about Madara. The old Uchiha never let anything interfere with him. Not family, not love, not death, and certainly not a child. If he had nothing to do with this, it was only because he hadn't decided on a suitable way to use Uchiha Obito yet.

The real question was whether it was worth doing something about.

Tobi returned to his room and slid the door shut behind him. Then he stood there for a moment, hand resting on the door.

This was the last opportunity to let everything go. To keep his disguise on, go to bed, and let the consequences fall wherever they would. Or he could simply leave, disappear like a ghost and find freedom.

If his younger self got killed, he would be trapped in this world forever. But was that such a bad thing?

He knew the future and all the players behind it. If he claimed his younger self's eyes, he could carve out a place for himself and direct the future without limit. All nine of the Beasts existed here. Nagato was here.

All the more reason to end Madara.

All the more reason to leave now, to forget about taking a detour into the village that would inevitably incur Minato's wrath. Doing it this way was a larger risk for a smaller gain. A fool's gamble.

"Kai."

A plume of vapor surrounded Tobi, returning him to his true form.

He walked slowly over to the bed, where he'd laid out some clothes. Gloves and a cowled undershirt to cover his hands, arms, and neck. Standard Konoha-nin attire, complete with flak vest and hitai-ate. A heavy black mantle. The toarmband and a mask he'd found in town. It was the least flashy one he could get without stealing from the ANBU themselves: plain white and shaped to resemble a karasu tengu, with a short beak and feathers carved lightly into the wooden surface.

It would have to do.

Tobi put on everything except the armband, mask, and hitai-ate. He wrapped bandages around his head to cover his missing eye and most of the scars.

He picked up the hitai-ate and hesitated. The metal plate caught the tiny sliver of light from between the window curtains. He turned it over and tied it loosely from his neck.