To Be Lost On The Road To Life

Light Causes

"—And then, the way Kakashi slipped on the puddle and landed head-first in the bucket of paint was hilarious, he was soooo angry..."

Rin chuckled as Obito retold the latest exploits of Team Seven, the both of them finding more humor in the fact that their third teammate had a rather pronounced pout on his face—even through his usual face-mask. Minato followed his team of Chūnin with a smile as the small group made their way over to the training grounds for a good after-mission training session.

"That's not exactly how it went, dobe," Kakashi cut in irritably, glaring at Obito. "At least I landed in white paint, a whole bucket of red fell on you—and then you were doused with white." He gestured pointedly at Obito's clothes, which were splattered with red, white, and a whole mess of what the two colors mixed into. Pink.

The Uchiha only laughed, smirking at his teammate. "I think we all had fun, Bakashi. Care to remind me exactly how I was doused with white paint?"

A small smile slowly grew on Kakashi's face, ebbing away at the hard-fought look of reserve and irritation, and Obito's own grin widened in response.

It had been about a week after his conversation with the Kyūbi, longer since the small disagreement with his teammates, and Obito had proceeded to go about his business as if nothing changed. His team was more or less back to normal as it stood; Minato was present most of the time, now, which significantly lifted the spirits of all three of the Chūnin. Rin had gone back to being her usual positive, happy, and supportive self with radiant smiles. Kakashi, surprisingly, no longer seemed suspicious and wasn't as guarded—in fact, the boy seemed almost friendly, now. He was still a bit of an ass at times, but it was significantly easier for Obito to pry reluctant but true smiles from the young Hatake, and it soothed his guilty conscience somewhat.

Still smiling, Obito inconspicuously glanced to the side at a specific presence he had been feeling for a while. It had begun following them shortly after reporting to the Hokage, and while it felt of no malicious intent and seemed relatively benign, that only served to further alert Obito. The presence—no, presences—were undoubtedly human, and the complete and utter lack of intent—absence of traceable emotion—was unnerving. And it meant one thing.

Root.

His eyes narrowed at the slight rustle of leaves from one of the Root members. Clearly, Danzō hadn't sent out his best if they were making mistakes such as that. Surely the man knew that, to spy on their team(Namikaze Minato was present, for crying out loud) he would need to send those of higher skill? After all, not only was the man considered one of the best Jōnin of Konoha, but he also had sensing abilities that even specialists marveled at. What was the old warhawk playing at...?

Cautiously, Obito slid his gaze from the front to his sensei—and had to withhold the automatic flinch that resulted when his onyx eyes met piercing azure. Analyzing, measuring, calculating... It was the look Minato had while battling.

And it was aimed at him.

The Uchiha sighed loudly, inwardly cursing his inattentiveness. Of course Minato would've detected their shadows... And noticed that Obito realized it as well. Sometimes, he found it easy to relax around his team and forget that one was a child prodigy, while the other was a genius that had experienced all of the more severe aspects of their career. If Obito wanted to hide something, he would be hard-pressed to do so in the presence of the man.

"Obito?" The time traveler slowed his pace to fall into step with the blonde, whose gaze was now rooted to the path ahead of them. He spoke in a low, quiet tone, out of earshot of the other two members of Team seven who were chatting several paces ahead. "Did you feel something odd?"