The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 22: Come Together

Contrary to his expectations, the dramatic discovery he had made did not immediately turn his life into some big, remarkable, chaotic mess. In fact, the entirety of the following day went along the same calm routine as usual—completely undisturbed—as did the day after that.

Which, of course, actually makes perfect sense. Just because he knew that there was a possible doomsday threat looming in the future, doesn't mean anybody else does. Heck, the attack may not even happen for years yet. It's not as though he had a lot to go on when guessing how much time he had: a couple of images drawn by fans couldn't tell him much.

And even if he did know when it would happen, there was even less that he could actually do about it. He'd sound like an absolute lunatic if he tried to tell anybody. Imagine going up to the Hokage—or even some random ninja—with claims that, according to a cartoon in a different dimension, the Nine-Tails would attack the village at an indeterminate time in the maybe-not-so-distant future.

No. Not a good plan.

Honestly, the only person he'd even consider telling would be Minato himself. And given that Axel would still sound crazy, he decided he'd hold off on any warning attempts until he had an explanation less insane than an alternate reality television show.

Of course, though there were no disturbances on the level of village-destruction in his day to day life—thank goodness—there were still the typical excitements. Ninja will be ninja, after all.

Take, for example, the innumerable holes jabbed into the various surfaces in the store from overeager shoppers trying out the throwing knives. He had started leaving the front window open and requesting that, if the knife really needs a test throw, his customers at least spare the building and aim for the log sign out front instead. There were still a few new punctures, though, including one kunai that was now stuck so far in the ceiling Axel doubted he'd ever be able to get it out.

And take, for another example of ninja disruptiveness, the pair of young genin-in-training currently sitting at his kitchen table working on their homework. At least that's what he assumed they were doing—or trying to do, anyway—and even then it's only half true: one of them was working. The other was trying, but he was just a tad too energetic to sit still long enough.

"Obito." No matter how sweet Rin may have sounded, there was still an audible eye roll in her tone: friendly, yes, but there nonetheless. She gently scolded, "You do know that you actually have to do the work for it to get done, right?"

There was a laugh that the boy probably meant to sound confident or reassuring but just ended up being kind of sheepish. "It's fine, no problem!"

Rin gave her teammate a look.

"And, well, it's such a nice day out," Obito continued, trying to deflect, "so, uhm, maybe we could take a break...?

"We can take a break after you finish the first page."

"But—"

"No buts!"

Thinking maybe he should see if he could help help, Axel closed his notebook—setting aside thoughts of doomsday and his sketchy plans for trying to warn people about it—and stood up. He stretched, relieving a number of cricks in his arms and legs from sitting so long at the register without doing anything but scribble down notes.

His moving roused a disgruntled bark from down by his feet, and a petulant dachshund nose peeked up at him from deep under the desk. Dach, who was curled up on an old cushion he'd stuffed under there, had apparently been using one of his human's feet as a pillow.