Hope Flies on Wind-bent Wings

reputation is a bitter harvest

A/N: Insert obligatory Among Us joke here

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Obito stood in front of the double doors to the place where the Akatsuki leaders wanted to meet him. He rested his hand on the handle of one and hesitated.

He still had no idea what to expect from them. Would it do something irreversible to his timeline that he couldn't quite figure out?

There was still time to leave. They had taken his gear, but he had plenty more inside kamui. And he'd already learned something about where to find the hunter-nin. He could search any abandoned villages along the border and hope they'd stopped there to lay low for a while.

But Akatsuki was against the Hunters, too. Maybe they knew something important.

And maybe he could learn something about their leaders—even if he didn't understand how they had changed for the worst.

Obito turned the door handle and entered.

The room beyond—if room was the right word for it—took up what had to be the entirety of this floor. It stretched from end to end, enclosed on three sides, with the entire back wall missing. Rain fell in a constant torrent, sending fresh air and echoes into the space. An uncovered balcony extended a little way beyond the edge of the building.

Nearer to the opening, but covered from the rain, there was a large rectangular table that looked like it was constructed from a slab of concrete. Chairs were scattered haphazardly around, but only three figures sat around the table.

Obito walked forward nervously. The floor above was held up with thick round columns interspersed throughout, and the room was filled with shadows and the smell of rain.

He took a deep breath and strode up to the table. Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan looked up at him.

"Hey! Good to see you up," Yahiko said with a grin. "If an Uchiha died and no one was around but us, the situation could get sticky."

"I don't understand." Obito's voice reverberated around the room, and he lowered it. "I thought Ame hated outsiders."

Yahiko's expression grew serious. "Don't you think we have a reason to?"

"I—I didn't mean that. I just meant... thanks for saving me."

"Have a seat." Konan gestured at a chair on the other side.

Obito sat across from them, his back to the open balcony. The empty space prickled the back of his neck. But sitting too close to the leaders wasn't a comforting idea, either.

Yahiko cleared his throat. "As I said the other day, we've been tracking the Hunters, too. But there's been a—"

"The other day?" Obito blurted, leaning forward. "Wait, how long was I out?"

"A little over 48 hours," Konan said, looking past him to the sky outside.

"What? Oh no." Obito sat back in his chair heavily. "Two days? Who knows where they could be by now?"

Yahiko gestured. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. We first noticed them hiding in abandoned villages along the Fire border a few weeks ago. We had theories, but what you told us was the last piece to the puzzle. They were only using it as a way to sneak around Konoha's defenses in the east. Now that's done, they're gone. We've continued looking, but there has been no sign of them since then."

Obito slumped in his chair, deflated. From the start, he'd known it was a long shot. That the risk outweighed the probability of success. But he couldn't just sit still. He couldn't.