Continuum

Chapter 3

After resting for half a day, Obito wandered towards the general direction of Konoha (as a person who mainly travels via 'teleportation', it was a requirement of his to have spatial and geographical awareness), knowing that to start 'fixing' things, he was first required to actually be there in person.

Although it would be less cumbersome for Obito to infiltrate Konoha's ranks by showing his eyes and claiming to be a bastard Uchiha born out of the wedlock, he has no desire whatsoever to join Konoha's ranks. Hence, he would recover his strength and - with the help of Kamui - remain in the shadows to set things straight.

The first on his to-do list was, obviously, his younger self.

It would be better to rid the world of that particular nuisance just in case he failed spectacularly down the road... Since Naruto's plans mainly consist of a lot of 'Talk-no-jutsu'. And Obito was not the naive boy that he used to be - he has long grown into a cynical man.

... Sasuke and old man Madara would be proud of his neurotically stubborn mindset when it came to selfishness - truly worthy of an Uchiha who had been driven into madness. Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, and Rin, however, would be devastated.

Obito simply wishes that his mind would just stop tormenting him with all of those presumptions and let him do whatever the fuck he wanted without auditory hallucinations of being judged by those he cared about adding to his already long list of mental disorders.

The dead have no ability to speak to the living... unless, of course, they were unfortunate enough to be reanimated by a psychopath using the Edo-tensei; which would then make them an annoyance that Obito would avoid with a ferocious passion.

Anyway, Obito was so done with everything. He didn't need his mind telling him he was a lunatic - he already knows, thank you very much.

When he shook his head to rid himself of those inane musings, Obito was suddenly hyper-aware of the sound of water splashes. He was quick to change directions, knowing that it would be best to hydrate himself without diminishing his very limited supplies, as it would be better to leave them in the case of emergencies.

When he saw the source - a lake - his vision tunneled and he dragged his exhausted body to the edge of the waters, stumbling here and there before he fell to his knees, his arms and legs trembling from the strain.

He was tempted, oh so very tempted, to strip and dive into the water to be clean from the dirt and grime and dried blood caked all over his face and body. Alas, he knew better than to introduce unboiled water to open wounds and his newly implanted left eye. He did not need an infection on top of being deprived of chakra.

Just as he reaches to bunch up his left sleeve and retrieve a cooking pot from his storage seal, he heard the soft sound of breathing coming from his right. It would've been inaudible to civilians, but with his shinobi-trained senses, it was just enough for him to realize that he was not entirely alone.

It seems that his awareness has dropped in his weakened state. Or, rather, he should've checked the area before he relaxed his guard.

Obito's body complained at the abuse when he forces himself to his feet, stumbling only once, before righting himself to face the unknown person with a kunai in hand, on guard and ready to defend himself. Unfortunately for Obito, his Sharingan flared completely on instinct, much to his horror, too used to Obito leaving them activated even in his sleep.

Immediately, the strain on his severely depleted chakra reserves causes him to break out in cold sweat and topple to one side. Obito even swore that he blacked out for a second there; because one moment he was standing, the next, he was in the unknown person's arms.