3Summary: After a particularly harsh fight with Kakashi and an intense self-training session that ends in bloody fists, tears, and exhaustion, A mysterious Uchiha appears and offers to train Obito. She refuses initially, but he was never really willing to accept no for an answer. AU, Fem!Obito, Dimension/Time Traveling Male!Obito, Ambiguous Ending, One-Shot, No pairings.
Obito was pissed. No, she wasn't even pissed. She was furious. That stupid, short little scare-crow thought he was better than her, and the little shit took every opportunity that he could to show anyone and everyone whenever they competed directly against the other just that (and had done so today, in front of Rin no less). She wanted to know what his problem with her was and she knew where he trained by himself after team training was done (if only to usually avoid him because she didn't want to see him more than she had to) so it wasn't like she couldn't find him. She was only hesitating because she had never yet beat Kakashi, and she was sure it would turn into a fight in the end.
It was inevitable between them, really, unless she let her anger out in another way. They were far too different to get along, even if it had taken her a long time to see it. They may be team-mates, but they would never be friends, and it had crushed the small, child-like part of her that had honestly wanted to reach out and make friends with him at first even despite his attitude toward her. But, he had worn her down. She was done trying to be his friend when he had said he wanted nothing to do her, that she was trash and that she didn't deserve her name, as Uchiha were elite, and she was anything but. So yeah, she had stopped trying to make friends with Kakashi. Whenever they argued, Rin would always choose Kakashi's side.
It just showed where her priority to her friends lay, which was to the wayside apparently when she saw something (or someone) she wanted. Obito had thought she and Rin were best friends, but apparently that didn't matter in the face of whatever petty little crush she had on the bastard. It hurt her to acknowledge it, but it seemed that she was once again growing distant from whatever relationships she thought she might have had with her team (or maybe she had been delusional and had seen something that had just never been there in the first place. Was she really that pathetic?). It made something ache in her chest to think about it.
She wondered if she should even bother to confront him. Maybe she would just stop talking to him. It would give him less ammunition to use against her at the very least. It would probably make team meetings easier to stomach as well if she could ignore whatever came out of his stupid face. She would just concentrate on improving herself for now. Rin and Kakashi could do whatever they wanted. They could go get married and have a thousand children for all she cared. She was done caring about what her friend who consistently wanted to get into a relationship (that would most likely end up unhealthy) with an emotionally stunted midget with daddy issues and a hard on for rules did with her life.
She was done trying to stop Rin from hurting herself. She was done with trying to save her from the world. If the girl wanted to learn her lessons the hard way, so be it. Kakashi would just reject her or use her and then throw her to the side anyway, and she was tired of waiting for that day to come just so she could be a shoulder to cry on when the girl got her heart broken because the boy who didn't know how to maintain a healthy relationship inevitably rejected her or got tired of her (and whom had stated numerous times that he didn't want any relationships anyway). She couldn't keep trying to maintain a friendship with someone who clearly didn't care enough to see that she was trying to help her.
She sighed heavily. Despite what she had decided, she knew it wouldn't be easy to ignore Kakashi, and she would need a different outlet for her anger than him if she wanted to give the impression she was ignoring him. She would probably end up using her private training time to do so. Who knew, it might even make her stronger in the end. Learning to control her temper would certainly be hard, but she knew she could do it. It was just a matter of telling herself that he was unimportant to her, therefore anything he said was unimportant as well. Okay, well, that and attempting not to punch his teeth out when he said something that still got under her skin even despite trying to ignore it.
Decided on her course of action, she went to seek out a field to train in that was as far from his as it could be. She found a secluded, and by the looks of it, seldom used training ground with a little effort, and soon began to train there once she took stock of what the field had. She had decided on letting her anger out in taijutsu first, and wrapped her hands in a layer of bandage and medical tape before wrapping her ankles and going to work on one of the training dummies. She found that hitting it didn't give her any real satisfaction even if she did imagine it with Kakashi's face, and it was with anger that she turned and punched a tree near herself, leaving a small notch where her fist impacted and making it sting, but also somehow satisfying her anger.
Before she knew it, she was pummeling the hard tree rather than the training dummy, and her fists and ankles were bruised and bloodied by the time her anger had been sated and she lay there, panting, by the tree that was now covered in notches and even small craters along with blood from herself. She was sore, but the pain of it, the sheer physical feeling, had somehow calmed her anger, and now she was left with numbness inside and a throbbing pain in her extremities. She didn't know when she had taken her goggles off, or when she had started crying, but the tears were a constant stream now. Despite the fact that she hated him, Kakashi's words had affected her deeply.
He had dragged up all of her old insecurities, and somehow, even though she told herself not to be affected by it, she couldn't help but feel that maybe he was right. Maybe she would never match up to the rest of her clan in terms of power or their expectations. Her heart skipped a beat, and shot up into her throat at the sound of another voice out of nowhere.
"Pathetic. Is this what my clan has been reduced to?" said a voice she didn't recognize in a tone she did recognize. That was the same tone the clan head used to express his disgust in her, and that all Uchiha generally used when talking to another person who they felt below them (so pretty much everyone who wasn't an Uchiha). Then, there was the fact that he'd said my clan. She rolled over onto her stomach quickly, pushing herself up and into a defensive position with her back against the beat up tree. She couldn't tell where the voice had come from. She hadn't wanted any of her clan to find her here, and alone nonetheless. She had been careless.
"What do you want?" she questioned carefully, trying to find where he was in the part of the darkened tree line that she could see and having no luck. This was bad; it could be anyone from her clan, and quite a few had expressed the desire to simply help beat discipline and competency into her. She couldn't afford to be caught out by one that didn't like her now, when she was alone and had no one to run to that could defend her from clan action. She nearly screamed as a shadow condensed near the tree-line in front of her and a single sharingan flared to life in the darkness. Her stomach filled with lead as she realized she'd been right, and she had lost her chance to run.
He was obviously her clansmen, as no one had ever (as far as she was aware) taken control of a sharingan of another that wasn't an Uchiha. Seeing as he had the sharingan, he was most likely fully trained and experienced on the battle field to boot. She doubted she could match his speed. His sudden, quiet laughter sent a chill down her spine. She was sure that if spiders could laugh, they would laugh like that when they went to devour prey caught in their webs. It was an odd, discomfiting thought, and even as the laughter died down, her tension did not. He finally answered, startling her a bit.
"An apprentice." he said simply, not stepping out to reveal himself any more. She stared hard at the shadow, avoiding looking directly into his sharingan. She didn't have her own to counter his yet, so he could easily cast a genjutsu on her should she meet his eyes and slit her throat easily without her ever having known until she was choking on her own blood. His answer then registered and she couldn't help but be surprised. He was looking for an apprentice? Then why the hell was he here? She decided to ask just that.
"If you're looking for an apprentice then why the hell are you here talking to me? Shouldn't you be in the clan compound looking for 'promising talent' or something?" she quoted the other Uchiha who had deigned to take on apprentices (usually all other Uchiha) that she had heard of. His chuckle in reply sent chills down her spine. Why did she feel like she was talking to the devil?
"Well, that is very simple to answer, actually. Why should I waste my valuable time on training some arrogant little prodigy who wouldn't bother to work for anything when I can have an apprentice who would work hard naturally if only to get stronger and stop people from looking down on her? You do want that, don't you?" he asked, his tone teasing. She bared her teeth at him. How dare he imply that he would just be taking her as his apprentice, as if she had no choice in the matter? She growled at him, her face twisting into a snarl.
"Who said I wanted to be your apprentice? I don't trust any Uchiha further than I could throw them and I doubt you're any different than the rest of those arrogant blowhards. Go look elsewhere for your apprentice because I'm not taking your bait." she finished with anger, glaring at his single eye and realizing her mistake too late when she saw him disappear. Before she could even react, he had her pinned to the tree with a kunai at her throat, ready to end her. She finally got a look at him and was disgruntled to learn that she couldn't even see his face because of the stupid mask he was wearing. She took careful breaths in and out so as to not move her throat as much.
He smirked behind his mask as he sensed the presence listening in, despite how well he hid his chakra. The fact that the teen had been here for awhile and he hadn't noticed him was impressive, but the teen's chakra had spiked with emotion despite himself when he'd pinned the girl so suddenly. Well, why not make a show of this then? It didn't look like he was moving to help, no matter that this was his team-mate and she had a kunai to her throat. He leaned down to one side of her head, his mask just beside her ear as he chuckled again, feeling her shiver against the tree in fright. He wondered if he had been as weak as she was, or if the differing gender had somehow made a difference. He took in her scent before he decided to actually speak.
"I suppose I should have told you that I wasn't giving you a choice in the matter. You can be strong if you are trained correctly, but this village will only hinder your potential. I am going to correct that. I am going to take the treasure that they are so insistent is trash and shine it up so that they can see what they discarded; so that they can see how devastating you can be when given proper training to bring out your massive potential." he said, hearing her breath hitch. He could tell that she was wavering now. On one hand, he was holding a fucking kunai to her throat and threatening to take her from her home village, but on the other hand, was that really so bad?
He knew that like he had originally, she had, at one time or another, entertained the thought of leaving the village altogether if it meant escaping all the scorn. Added to that was the fact that, unlike anyone else, he had stated that she had potential. That she could be strong. If their universes were pretty much the same in essence (aside from the flipped genders of the two), then she had probably never heard someone state such a thing about her as if it were irrefutable fact before; in fact, most of the time it would have been the opposite. He was probably the first one to actually acknowledge that he thought she could be strong. He smirked under his mask again.
This should work to his advantage in getting her to cooperate with him enough to actually train her. He slowly pulled back the kunai from her throat and put it away, backing up to look at her face. She was visibly indecisive even if she had made an effort to disguise it. It was his face, even if the gender was switched, and at this point in his life he had been an open book. He waited patiently to see if she would come with him willingly or not, and she seemed to unconsciously understand that, which was good as it meant that she had no delusions that she could get away from him. He would rather she came quietly so they could escape and move faster, but he would just as soon knock her out and take them both to the Kamui dimension if he needed to. Finally, she sighed and then spoke.
"Fine. I won't pretend to know why we need to leave the village, but I suppose it isn't really my place to ask." she said, her tone biting. He felt himself smile a bit at the jab.
"I've told you already; this village will only hinder you. I won't lie; we will do things that you will not want to do, but you will become strong enough to endure them. As for the issue of my heritage, while I may be Uchiha by blood, I cut my ties to that clan and this village long ago and I was stronger for it. I will train you as I have been trained, and you will hate me for it, but you will be strong by the end of it. You will gain strength enough to return and show the Uchiha and the village your strength, should that be what you wish to do. I'm sorry that I can't give you much of a choice in the matter but you are too much of a prize to let escape.
"This means that even if you don't trust me enough to listen at first, I will still take you. Your lessons will be beaten into you until you should choose to cooperate, if that is what it takes. You will become a deadly weapon and then you will be free to do what you wish, should that be attempting to kill me, showing those who you hate how strong you've become or whatever else you may wish to do." he finished nonchalantly, as if he wasn't saying he was going to ruin her career as a shinobi of Konoha by taking her from her village and having her declared a missing nin. He could see her shaking. At first, he thought it was anger at him for what he was planning to do, but then she spoke.
"I suppose that if I'm not being given a choice anyway, I might as well go willingly, if only to avoid being taken by force. The promise that I will get strong enough to show that bastard just who the trash really is will have to be enough for now." she said with dark promise as she thought about the silver haired Nin she loathed. He chuckled as he felt the hiding Nin's chakra spike again. He would have to finish this up before the teen decided to intervene or to attempt to fetch the ANBU.
"Good, you have someone to hate. It will drive you in your training even when you have no other goal. Hold on to that." he said, stepping close to her. He could hear the shift as the teen in hiding tensed to jump out at them. Oh, this was odd. He was actually going to try to confront them himself. He couldn't have that. It looked like they would be taking Kamui after all. He grabbed her while she was still lost in thought, and by the time Kakashi had jumped out, he had already activated his Mangekyo and then Kamui, giving time only for them to get a glimpse of one another before the two Uchiha disappeared, sucked into the Kamui dimension by his eye.
He couldn't believe what he had just heard, and he had no idea what he had just seen. He had come here from heading back to his apartment, distracted by the sounds of flesh impacting wood. He had concealed his presence in order to see who was out so late still training and had come upon the scene of Obito angrily punching and kicking a tree of all things and actually leaving small dents and craters along with blood. By the looks of things, she'd been at it for a while and it wasn't until she had stopped, collapsing from exhaustion (and most likely pain) and had fallen backward that he saw she had been crying. Figures. Once a crybaby, always a cry baby. How pathetic. A voice that echoed from around them seemed to agree.
"Pathetic. Is this what my clan has been reduced to?" said the voice in a superior sneer, surprising Kakashi. So this was another Uchiha? Maybe he'd finally get to see her interact with a person worthy of her clan name, even if his words implied he had been living in seclusion away from the rest of the clan. He watched her get up as quickly as she could into a defensive stance despite her exhaustion and pain and had to mentally commend her for at least that. After all, people could easily lie and mislead and it wouldn't be infeasible for someone who wanted to capture a bloodline to pretend to be someone of that bloodline to gain the trust of their intended victim.
"What do you want?" he heard her ask carefully, her face far more worried than it should be if it were just a member of her clan as she scanned the tree line from the one she had her back against. He saw her jump in fright as she focused on something almost directly in front of her and he turned to look quickly, watching as a silhouette slid from the darkness of the trees just to the tree line and a single sharingan (from what he could see, at least) flared to life. He watched her freeze for a moment in what looked like abject fear as the sharingan moved to study her. After a few moments of quiet, he laughed for a good few moments before he answered her, the laughter chilling Kakashi despite his ability to detach from emotion. He felt the tension in the clearing skyrocket.
"An apprentice." the silhouette said simply, not stepping out to reveal himself any more. That answer had surprised Kakashi. If he was looking for an apprentice, what was he doing here talking to the weakest of the Uchiha? He watched her stare hard at the shadow, avoiding looking directly into his sharingan before his answer seemingly registered for her. As she spoke, it seemed she had similar thoughts to the ones he had.
"If you're looking for an apprentice then why the hell are you here talking to me? Shouldn't you be in the clan compound looking for 'promising talent' or something?" she said, her voice laden with loathing. The man's chuckle in reply sent chills down his spine once more, and he had to ignore the urge to get up and run. The man was giving things away about himself and he needed as much information as he could if this turned hostile for some reason.
"Well, that is very simple to answer, actually. Why should I waste my valuable time on training some arrogant little prodigy who wouldn't bother to work for anything when I can have an apprentice who would work hard naturally if only to get stronger and stop people from looking down on her? You do want that, don't you?" he asked, his tone teasing. He watched her bare her teeth at the man in anger before she growled at him, her face twisting into a snarl. He was surprised. He thought she would jump at a chance to be trained by someone powerful from her clan. Her next words, however, shot that assumption down completely.
"Who said I wanted to be your apprentice? I don't trust any Uchiha further than I could throw them and I doubt you're any different than the rest of those arrogant blowhards. Go look elsewhere for your apprentice because I'm not taking your bait." she said angrily, (stupidly) meeting his eye when she glared at him and getting caught in a genjutsu while he moved forward almost too quickly to see, a kunai against her throat as he dispelled the genjutsu with seemingly a glance. Anger at the man and his team-mate along with fear he didn't know he had for the latter bloomed in him, making him struggle to control his chakra and keep it suppressed.
He watched as the man leaned down to one side of her head, his mask just beside her ear as he chuckled again. She shivered in what had to be fear from having the man so close, and Kakashi couldn't blame her for that. The man and his laugh were creepy. He was just glad that he could still hear what the man was saying when he started speak quietly to her right beside her ear, although he was filled with dread once it became clear what the man was saying.
"I suppose I should have told you that I wasn't giving you a choice in the matter. You can be strong if you are trained correctly, but this village will only hinder your potential. I am going to correct that. I am going to take the treasure that they are so insistent is trash and shine it up so that they can see what they discarded; so that they can see how devastating you can be when given proper training to bring out your massive potential." the man finished grandly. He heard her breath hitch and he could tell that she was wavering now. Oh, this was far worse than he had thought. This man was a traitor and he was talking about kidnapping Obito and taking her from the village to train her.
Just what the hell was her clan thinking, getting involved in illegal things like this? Was she to be made into a weapon for the Uchiha against the village, just in case? Despite what he heard about whatever the other Uchiha and various people had said about her, this Uchiha was saying she had massive potential, that she would be strong. Maybe they had known all along and didn't want it known so that she wouldn't be missed when she was abducted? He didn't know, but as the man slowly pulled his kunai away from her throat and backed off, he could see her wavering again. This was bad. He had never thought she would consider becoming a traitor, but it looked like this man was getting to her. Finally, she sighed and then spoke, making his heart sink with dread.
"Fine. I won't pretend to know why we need to leave the village, but I suppose it isn't really my place to ask." she said sarcastically in reply to the man. He nearly jumped up right then but realized that he would be no match for this man, whoever he was, at the current time despite his prodigious talent. He couldn't believe she would just agree to go with this man. She should at least have fought him. He then stopped as he realized once more that this man was an Uchiha. If this was clan business, she may not be able to refuse anyway. He didn't know anything about the Uchiha clan's laws just like no one else who wasn't an Uchiha didn't. What if this was authorized? He hesitated.
"I've told you already; this village will only hinder you. I won't lie; we will do things that you will not want to do, but you will become strong enough to endure them. As for the issue of my heritage, while I may be Uchiha by blood, I cut my ties to that clan and this village long ago and I was stronger for it. I will train you as I have been trained, and you will hate me for it, but you will be strong by the end of it. You will gain strength enough to return and show the Uchiha and the village your strength, should that be what you wish to do. I'm sorry that I can't give you much of a choice in the matter but you are too much of a prize to let escape.
"This means that even if you don't trust me enough to listen at first, I will still take you. Your lessons will be beaten into you until you should choose to cooperate, if that is what it takes. You will become a deadly weapon and then you will be free to do what you wish, should that be attempting to kill me, showing those who you hate how strong you've become or whatever else you may wish to do." the man finished nonchalantly, causing Kakashi to take in a sharp breath in as his questions were answered and his fears increased ten-fold. This man was a rogue Nin. His words had confirmed it and he was literally planning to turn her into a weapon (for who knew what purpose).
He could see her shaking. At first, he thought it was anger at the man for what he was saying to her, but it was made clear as she spoke.
"I suppose that if I'm not being given a choice anyway, I might as well go willingly, if only to avoid being taken by force. The promise that I will get strong enough to show that bastard just who the trash really is will have to be enough for now." she said, shocking Kakashi with her words. Had his insults really had that big an effect on her? He felt his stomach knot unpleasantly with unwilling guilt at the realization. It was compounded with the man's next words.
"Good, you have someone to hate. It will drive you in your training even when you have no other goal. Hold on to that." he said, stepping close to her. This was his chance. He had to get to them before the man could take Obito away. If he had to fight her too, so be it. He wouldn't just sit there and let her become a traitor to her village. He watched as the man grabbed her while she was still lost in thought, and by the time Kakashi had gotten close, he could only watch helplessly as the two of them were sucked into a dark fissure of air that disappeared with them, leaving not a trace of either behind. There was only enough time for the two teens to get a glimpse of one another before the two traitors vanished.
He stopped running, knowing that if the man could use a space-time technique like that, he was likely very far away from Konoha right now, with his newly traitorous team-mate. Kakashi sighed. He would have to report this to his sensei so he could report it to the Hokage and have ANBU sent out after them, even if it was most probably useless by now. With another heavy sigh, he hurried away to inform his sensei of what had happened. It took the village only a few hours to ascertain that they were long gone and that she had left willingly. She was declared a missing Nin only minutes after the decision by the Hokage with a kill-on-sight order authorized (demanded) by the Uchiha.