Uzumaki: Obito Fanfiction

4.

Obito lay on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. His hair had grown, becoming shaggy and unkept around his face. He was improving slowly but surely and his health was almost top notch. At night, his thoughts ran wild in his head. Zetsu had gone the previous day, apparently scouting the tunnels and looking at what was going on in the outside world. Obito frowned. He never understood why Aiko didn't do it herself. Was she afraid of going outside?

He shook his head. No time to think about that now. He had to go back to Rin and Kakashi. But a part of him wanted to stay. He was accepted in this cave, this place where rats and Hashirama clones ran about. He wouldn't have to compare himself to Kakashi in this place. "Think about Rin," he told himself, remembering how he used to kiss her picture every night, wondering how her lips felt on his. He thought about her, but instead of her face, he saw bright red hair and laughing amber eyes teasing him. He felt himself flinch. What was going on?

He remembered with embarrassment how he dropped into her bath. What a stupid mistake..she must think that he was a pervert....

He mentally hit himself upside the head. Why did he care what she thought? Up until now, only Rin filled his mind. "Yeah, you like Rin—" he tried to convince himself, "you really really like Rin. Not the redhead."

The redhead kept showing in his mind. "Shit," he muttered as he rolled off the bed and decided to take a walk to clear his mind. In the middle of walking around a dark cave with nothing else to do, Obito froze when he heard a sound. It was slight, almost inaudible, but he still heard it.

  There was the clear sound of sobbing, coming from the place where Aiko slept. Worry filled his chest as he rushed over there to find the redhead thrashing in her bedclothes, tears drilling down her face as Obito quickly lit one of the rare candles to allow some light. "Mama.....papa...." she sobbed, as he stood, paralyzed, not knowing what to do. It looked like she was having a panic attack.

  How could she have one now? He never noticed it until now. Did that mean....Obito's eye widened slightly. Did she have this every night? Was that why she went to bed later than him, to make sure that he didn't see her like this? Obito slowly knelt down before trying to gently grab her wrists before she could hurt herself. Aiko only thrashed harder before Obito firmly took action and wrapped his arms around her, making sure she couldn't move. "Aiko—" He hushed in her ear, trying to keep his voice gentle, "Aiko!"

  Those yellow eyes opened fearfully, panicked and afraid as she gulped in large amounts of oxygen. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "Breathe—" Obito commanded, taking her chin in his hands and forcing her to look into his eyes, "breathe..."

  Aiko sputtered, hacking as she tried to breathe but it worked. Her movements grew slower, her thrashing...weaker. When her breathing calmed somewhat, Obito slowly let go of her wrists, though he made sure to stay next to her in case it happened again. He watched as the girl who seemed so strong and rebellious; the one who cursed out one of the most powerful shinobi in history buried her head in her hands and sobbed. Obito sat there, almost awkwardly and slowly patting her back before her tears dried and she couldn't cry anymore.

  Aiko looked down at her feet, her eyes swollen and her face red as her hair. "I'm...I'm sorry—" she struggled to breathe, "you were sleeping and...."

  "Aiko."

  "—I know you have to go back to Rin and Kakashi and you're probably thinking I'm stupid and weak and....."

  "Aiko!"

  She looked up at his tone in surprise. He looked at her, almost wearily. "I'm fine, Aiko, it's you I'm worried about."

  Worried. Her mother was worried about her. Her father was worried about her. And now...Obito was worried about her too? Why? Why didn't he hate her for all the times she had been so blatantly rude to him?

  "I'm fine," Aiko said, cheeks heating from the obvious lie.

   "That—" Obito pointed towards her, "that was certainly not fine. That was definitely not fine. Aiko—you're going to have to tell me sooner or later because I don't appreciate when you.....when someone I care about is in that much pain and I can't do anything to help them. It's something I hate the most."

  Aiko looked at the fierce eye. Someone he cared about? Her heart shook. Why did he care about someone like her?

  He wasn't going to give up. That much was obvious.

   "It was a nightmare—" Aiko tucked her ankles underneath her, still shuddering violently, "I was alone in a dark well—there was water pouring in from the outside and I was chained to the bottom.....I couldn't find a way out. I screamed but there was nobody to hear me or help me. I saw them—momma and father—-telling me to go on first while the rock slide happened....before it crushed them completely....." Aiko stopped, shuddering, "I watched them die all over again.....and I couldn't do anything—-I was.....I was all alone again in the darkness like the time before......I was all alone...." Obito watched her, his own chest hurting. Alone? Before she met Zetsu and the rats?

  He sat still.

  After her parents died, she had been living in the dark tunnels for who knows how many years with not a single ray of light or human interaction?

  Without thinking, Obito reached out and hugged her fiercely. Aiko started in his grasp but she slowly sank into his embrace as her tears wet his shoulder. "Aiko, you're never alone. You've got Hashirama, Zetsu, and even this prick Uchiha—"he said, as the last part made her snort.

  Even this prick Uchiha.

  Aiko liked nothing more than that last phrase.