Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto

Kay, so umm... This was (is) very, very, very late and I apologise. I contemplated completely scrapping the chapter and starting from scratch several times because it got too gushy. I still feel like it's gushy, but that's up for you guys to decide. So umm... thanks for reading?

It takes Obito a full minute before he remembers that they have an audience.

It takes him less than half a second to realise that he doesn't give a damn.

He has been crushed by a rock and kidnapped by a creeper. He has been detained and interrogated by his fellow Konoha-nin and in the process, found out he had been mind-wiped and that he had a goddamned seal on his heart. He has been forced to eat The Hospital Food and infiltrated ANBU Headquarters. He has had a major operation and realised he let everyone he cared about think that he was dead and finally, finally found Kakashi.

He deserves this hug, dammit. And there will be hell to pay if it stops preemptively.

Unfortunately, his body doesn't get the memo.

A wave of exhaustion hits him out of nowhere and his limbs seize. He can barely hear some person's panicked cries above that incessant ringing in his head, let alone identify them and the black spots in his vision just. Won't. Go. Away.

"Obito? Obito! Dammit, stay with me! Why is he- What's happening?"

He's tired.

"-his Clan Head! You assured me that-"

"-delicate condition. He should have been restin-"

"-should have? If you had done your job, he would have-"

"-not the time, Fugaku! Let sensei do her job. Obito needs a-"

His head hurts.

"-and relocate him to the hospital. You have to keep him awake, Hatake. He needs-"

"-could Hiraishin-"

"-can't. His seal's unsta-"

Something wet drips onto his face.

"Don't close your eyes, Obito! Look at me, Obito. Just keep looking at me! You have to stay awake, Obito. Are you listening? Stay awake!"

'Kashi? Obito reaches for Kakashi's face, clumsily wiping the falling tears. 'Kashi, I'm sleepy.

"You can't, Obito. You have to stay awake."

Don' worry, 'Kashi. I'm just- just restin' my eye for a lil' bit.

"You can't, Obito. ...Obito? Obito?! Obito, open your eyes. Open them, Obito. Dammit Obito, open them!"

He feels so tired.

"Minato-sensei?! Iryo-nin-san?! It's- his heart- i-it won't- it's not- why isn't it- it's not beating!"

"Obito?! OBITO!"

It's dark.

The ground is hard and cold. Loose stones and pebbles scrape his skin raw. Trying to stand up, he wills the world to stop spinning.

Because he doesn't have time for lying around.

If his dreams are to be realised, if he wants to make the world a better place for the innocents who did not deserve to die.

He has to train.

Fighting the nausea, he pushes himself up. He can't see anything but he's been here for so long that he knows this cave better than the back of his hand. Stepping forward, he traces the pathway engraved into his memory.

It wouldn't do to keep shishou waiting.

Obito jolts awake.

What was- What the hell was that?

Confusion and fear well up within him in equal parts. He was in a- It was... and then-

He can't remember. Obito frowns.

The sound of shuffling papers to his right snaps him to attention.

"You're awake."

"A-ah," he answers, pushing down his unease, because that was a question, right?

"You probably feel slightly disorientated, right now." Mori-sensei pours a glass of water which Obito gulps down thirstily. "You did a number on yourself, Uchiha-san. Hopefully, this time you will heed my instructions and stay in bed." Here, Mori-sensei smiles and in the process, figuratively empties a bucket of ice down Obito's back.

Because if the line that distinguishes good shinobi from great shinobi is an edge, than the line that divides good iryo-nin from great iryo-nin is that smile.

A contradictory mixture of warmth, comfort and kindness that manages to inspire blinding and all-consuming terror in all its recipients or in this instance, recipient (i.e. Obito).

Mori-sensei is undoubtedly a great iryo-nin.

And Obito realises, with mounting horror, spying the clipboard in her hands, that Mori-sensei isn't just a great iryo-nin, she is also Obito's potential personal iryo-nin.

"Now." What once was a simple contralto is now the soundtrack to Obito's nightmares. "Would you like to enlighten me as to why you decided that window hopping and gallivanting around Konoha was appropriate after I explicitly said you needed bedrest?"

Ha… haha… hah… He's screwed.

A harsh dressing down later, Obito finds himself sat solidly in his bed idly spooning a bowl of questionably edible something.

Apparently, the seal was (is) still unstable and his 'dubiously thought-out, highly ill-advised and completely, utterly and undeniably moronic - Uchiha-san, tell me seriously now. How many times were you dropped on your head as an infant? - venture' caused it to destabilise temporarily.

Hence, the mini-heart attack/seizure/spontaneous blackout.

Which… makes sense, he guesses whilst poking a squishy lump, except there's something not right. It's just a feeling and he has no proof but labelling this as heart failure or shock or something just… doesn't seem right.

But Mori-sensei is the iryo-nin here and it's not like Obito can go up to her and say, "I'm pretty sure I've been misdiagnosed. Sure, my heart stopped working for a while but I really don't think I had heart failure. I think that I just decided to randomly go to sleep on the spot even though I showed absolutely no signs of fatigue before."

The lump slips out from under his spoon and he sighs. His not-very-smart antics have landed him a two week bed suspension.

Which, on one hand, sucks. He can already feel the beginnings of the gnawing sensation that he knows will soon escalate into the all-encompassing state of ennui.

A string of mucus-textured… soup drips from his spoon.

However, on the other hand, if he's a good boy (notagoodboyneveragoodboy) they might allow visitors.

Which kind of, almost, makes up for everything. The spoon falls into the bowl with a sickening squelch. Keyword, almost.

Glaring at the… food, Obito picks up his spoon reluctantly.

Bakashi better be grateful.

Two weeks of absolutely foul, vomit-inducing, disgusting bowls of dubiously nonliving Hospital Food, Obito is discharged and finally, finally cleared to eat actual food.

Disregarding the glares, Obito whoops.

Loudly.

The staff should be glad he's letting them go with just a little noise pollution. Lying to patients is an offence. Lying to Obito about Kakashi should call for a lynching.

Honestly, why promise visitors when they're prohibited?

It's not like he'll ninja-escape through the window in protest. He can be patient. What? Of course, he can be patient. No way, those first two times don't count. W-what? Two? Did he say two? No, no, no. You heard wrong. He said one. He did! Wait! Where are you going? Mori-sensei? Wait, no! DON'T TELL MORI-SENSEI!

The important thing is that he's free now.

Well, not free.

Fugaku-sama still hasn't told the clan the big news... which is understandable.

Giving away one of the Uchiha Clan's coveted dojutsu is probably considered the highest act of clan betrayal and if Obito lived in the time of the Warring Clans, he'd probably have been executed the moment they caught word. Luckily, he does not live in the Warring Clans Era so giving away a Sharingan needs to be explicitly classified as an act of betrayal before anyone can be killed.

So Obito can't begrudge Fugaku-sama the delaying of what will be a clusterfuck of politics for the both of them once the news of Obito's undeath gets out.

Consequently, Obito has been assigned a handler.

A trusted jounin who has proved over countless occasions to be a loyal Konoha shinobi. One that will be able to easily subdue and restrain Obito. A shinobi that has no compunctions in manhandling him into turning up for appointments, not just the ones with the hospital but also the T&I.

So Obito will have to be stuck dealing with a particularly lethal shadow whilst Fugaku-sama gets their clan together.

In other news, Minato-sensei has recently been assigned a D-rank babysitting mission.

An official D-rank mission. There's a scroll and everything.

Obito is not sure whether to be offended or not.

Obito is not happy.

Mori-sensei just dropped by to deliver the results of their tests. Which… they just left the hospital? Aren't diagnosises, diagnoses(?) - he doesn't language - supposed to be given before iryo-nin release their patients?

It's not like Obito knows anything about hospital procedures, or iryo-ninjutsu in general, but Obito is pretty sure that pretty much violates standard procedure.

But back to the point. Obito is upset.

Whatever creepy-kidnapper-ghost-person did to Obito has altered his physiology quite a bit. And by quite a bit, Obito means completely messed up. He's actually got a personal, as in only-Mori-sensei-can-treat-him-now-and-if-someone-else-wants-to-treat-him-they-have-to-consult-her-and/or-undergo-specialised-training. Which is…

Anyway, his physiology is completely whacked up.

From what the iryo-nin can tell, whoever took Obito wanted a super shinobi - the ones you hear in horror stories or see in the S-rank section of the Bingo Books. The shinobi that can take an A-rank raiton jutsu to the heart and still keep going.

Theoretically, he can go for weeks without food or water and still fight in tip-top condition. His body - both the Senju and normal side - can regenerate at unbelievable speeds. He isn't exactly immune to toxins and poisons, but if does decide to go through poison resistance training the effective training period could actually be just. One. Week.

And that's just absolutely insane.

But the worst thing is that it might not be an exaggeration.

It didn't seem like much at the time - what with Rin and Bakashi in danger - but he literally punched through a solid rock wall. Not only that, he ran home. What type of person - shinobi or not - can run at full speed, non-stop, after being tortured, through two countries?

(Ta no Kuni may be a small country, but it's a small country. He ran for a length spanning more than a country.)

What the actual hell?

And it makes him feel a little sick.

Because people don't go out of their way to save a basically-a-corpse shinobi in the middle of a warzone. They don't go around handing out biological miracles to strangers. At least, not out of the goodness of their hearts.

Obito might not be the brightest mind out there but even he can tell that with a little training, he could be a beast.

Mokuton, Sharingan, almost instant regeneration, endurance and pain tolerance levels like whoa… A personal, undetectable, unbeatable infiltration jutsu that has never ever been heard of before.

Obito could be an absolute monster.

Suddenly, the faded remains of the lessons that he can still remember get so much more ominous.

Because he wasn't just taught how to 'look underneath the underneath', how to dissect people's actions and behaviours and strip them down to the bare basics to find out what they might do next.

No. He was taught to 'look underneath the underneath', find people's motivations and twist them. To look at objects, scenarios and people and ask himself, how can I use this? How can I make this useful?

And that- that isn't the lesson of a minion. That isn't what someone would teach a pawn or a soldier. That isn't a lesson someone would teach to a person that was disposable.

It's a lesson designed for someone important.

Someone like a successor.

Obito feels sick.

Pushing that away, Obito looks deep into himself and finds that he also feels annoyed.

No, not annoyed.

Outraged.

Right now, Obito is burning with the flames of righteous anger.

None of the tests have implied that normal food would have any negative effects on him. In fact, the results actually imply that they would have done him better.

Couldn't they have figured that out before, you know, making him eat?

The worst part is that they actually made him eat lunch before they let him go. They made him. Eat. It.

Life Lesson #256: Nurses can not be trusted. They are E. V. I. L. EVIL. From now on, Obito knows that they are, collectively, the mortal incarnation of EVIL.

His tastebuds are revolting and Obito just knows, that this absolutely rancid taste will never, never, be washed out.

Doesn't mean he can't try though.

Gargling, Obito spits out the blue mouthwash before calling it quits. Rinsing his mouth, Obito looks up at the mirror.

The man in the mirror looks back.

Deep scars twist around his only eye in a way that is almost artistic. (Absently, Obito also notes that they resemble his Kamui and frowns, This had better not have been some kind of foreshadowed, poetic irony crap. His life isn't a story, dammit.)

In contrast, the left side of the man's face is smooth and perfect and pretty in the way that's classic to all Uchiha (and Obito isn't sure whether he has become narcissistic over the last few months or it's just a reaction to having half of his face scarred, but the intact half of his face is really, really pretty.)

It's different.

But strangely enough, his reflection doesn't bother him as much as he had thought it would.

Though what does bother him. Obito thinks, running a hand through his short (and by short, he means short) hair. Is couldn't the iryo-nin give him just a little more to work with?

Obito isn't even sure if you can call his hair, hair. In fact, it wouldn't be untrue to call it stubble. Honestly, if you're going to shave him bald, actually shave him bald.

Turning off the tap, Obito moves to leave the bathroom.

Time to go scope his newest cave/cell in the T&I/hospital room/place he's going to stay for a while that's less a prison and entirely Minato-sensei's guest bedroom (Question? Sensei's a shinobi, why does he even have a guest bedroom?).

Ooh, lookie. Kakashi's here too.

Obito doesn't know what he expected. Obito doesn't even know if he had any expectations.

And yet.

He's gobsmacked.

There... are just no words.

"How?"

Kakashi looks distinctly uncomfortable. "I… Do you like it?"

Obito stares.

At the table, the board, the extremely familiar futon set up on the floor. Heck, even the bookshelf looks the same. Right down to the books and the way they're stacked. Pulling out a novel, Obito runs a thumb over the inkblot where he vaguely remembers leaving his pen standing for too long.

This is… It's his room.

They've managed to literally cut and paste his room into sensei's house.

And Obito doesn't know what to say.

It's not that he didn't expect to ever see his things again. He just had other things to worry about. It's that, he did not expect to ever see his things again. He was dead. And while Obito may be the type of sentimental fool that clings onto old memories and trinkets, he has no delusions that his baa-chan is.

There's a reason why the only existing picture of his parents was left in Obito's possession. Is in his possession, Obito corrects, spying the faded photo on the pinboard.

Minato-sensei… Kakashi… They- They saved his things.

Something wet drips down onto his arm and Obito realises he's crying.

"I-"

"Obito? Are you oka-"

"I love it."

Kakashi stills.

"I never thought- I didn't think-" Obito stops, and thinks before uttering two words.

"Thank you."

When it's all said and done, Obito blames the drugs.

Yes, he hasn't been administered any since his release but that doesn't change anything. These tears, they're drug-induced. The reason he's been a weepy, over-emotional loser is the drugs.

Obito is not - and never will be - a crybaby.

Not matter what Bakashi says.

(Keep telling yourself that.

I will keep telling myself that, thank you very much.)

Ignoring Mental-Bakashi's very-much-unappreciated commentary, Obito returns to reality and finds himself in a very awkward silence.

Unlike his mental counterpart, Kakashi decides not to mention Obito's recent bout of (drug-induced) tears which Obito would appreciate.

Except, Obito and Kakashi have never really… talked before. You know, outside of snide words (Kakashi) and indignant yelling (Obito).

They've always had sensei (or Rin) there as a buffer to lessen the animosity and Obito can count on one hand the amount of times they've had a relatively civil conversation without intervention of a third part.

Looking at the wary glint in Kakashi's eye and the way he always pauses before he speaks - being careful not to offend. Obito knows that Kakashi knows that too.

Which is… not right.

Kakashi isn't supposed to pick and choose words before speaking. He isn't supposed to look at Obito as if one wrong move will make everything fall apart.

They're supposed to be teammates.

Obito and Kakashi have never talked before.

But…

That doesn't mean they can't start.

Someone once told him that friendship was a house. It's all in the foundations.

"Come on, Bakashi. We're late."

"For what?"

"For dango. There's a new- old-" Obito pauses, suddenly nervous. "There was a new back-before-I-was-kidnapped dango place that opened up and I- uh- I wanted to go there with a friend…"

Here, Obito looks up at Kakashi expectantly before faltering slightly when met with silence. You know, this sounded a great deal easier in his head.

"It's just- I thought since we're- I mean, it's okay if you don't want to… (I know you don't like sweets)... but I thought- I was thinking- I mean, it'd be nice to- There's also this really nice yakiniku place… Well, there was, there might not be anymore… I-"

Obito fumbles, cursing the world from inside his mind. Social skills, Oh Social skills wherefore hath thou fled.

A cave somewhere in the northmost part of Ta no Kuni.

Shut up, Mental-Bakashi.

Breathing in deeply, Obito takes a moment to rearrange his thoughts (and boot the chibi version of his teammate out).

C'mon 'Bito. You can do this. Keep it simple. Keep it straight. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

"I'm hungry and I like you. Let's have lunch together."

Out of nowhere, a distinctively feminine voice speaks up. "Oh. My. God." Oh no. "Did you hear that? DID YOU HEAR THAT? That's so cute, 'ttebane!"

"Kushina-nee! Stop! I didn't mea-"

"Also, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? DATTEBANE!"

Obito's crushed into two squishy lumps and He. Can't. BREATH.

"Mmffph! Mmmfffpphh!"

The vice-like grip suddenly disappears and he sinks to the ground, sucking in huge lungfuls of sweet sweet air. Whatever appeal breasts hold, Obito does not see it.

"-away from him, you crazy woman!"

"Kakashi."

"But sensei, she-"

"It-It's fine." Obito gasps out.

"Are you okay?" The drastic shift in Kushina-nee's behaviour is very very strange and Obito finds that the serious glint in her eyes does not suit her.

"Uh- yeah."

Suddenly, the look is gone and Kushina-nee is back to her normal self, leaving Obito wondering whether it was a figment of his imagination.

"Sooo…" There's an impish smile of her face and a wicked gleam in her eyes. "Lunch, huh?"

It's a leading sentence that Obito will not acknowle-

"I never thought of it before, but you two would be cute together."

What?

"It's- It's not like that!"

"A boy sacrifices himself to save the person he loves and in his dying moments leaves him with his most prized possession-"

"That's not- It wasn't-"

"-realises his love too late and spends his days mourning at the Memorial Stone-"

"It was a jounin present! Stop twist-"

"-of fate that he's actually alive and bides his time so he can escape-"

"This is not some sort of shoujo manga!"

"-finally reunite and profess their lo-"

"SHUT UP!"

Obito flushes tomato red as everyone's eyes fall on him.

"I didn't- It wasn't-" Floundering, Obito looks to the ceiling for divine intervention and once again it is confirmed that the world hates him. "It- It's not like that."

No one says anything and Obito feels the need to continue.

"It's just, it's been so long and I haven't seen Kakashi since forever and I was so, so scared and I didn't know what happened and- and no one would tell me anything and then Minato-sensei said that Kakashi was in ANBU and that no one knew I was back and I just- I missed him. I don't- I don't like him like that. It's just that the moment we finally came to an understanding, things happened and now I'm back, I want to-

I want to be his friend."

He's said it. The words are out there and he can't take them back.

And something about saying those six words out loud makes all his worries, all his nervous tension and internal panicking melt away.

I want to be Kakashi's friend.

Of course - since Obito is an overly emotional mess of a shinobi, and a teenager to boot - that singular moment of peace and serenity, that feeling of knowing, with absolute certainty, where you are in the world and where you're going disappears just as quickly as it had appeared.

Leaving Obito a nervous wreck.

Again.

Obito is starting to get very tired over all this puberty crap.

(He also feels a little queasy over the newest memory he has just-in-that-moment uncovered. He got The Talk from the creepy-kidnapper-ghost? Eww...)

Silence reigns supreme and Obito is feeling pressured to talk again.

Which he doesn't want to do.

Come on, there are three other people in the room. Surely, one of them wants to make a fool of themselves. He has already embarrassed himself enough as it is.

(He gets why Kakashi isn't talking. But why doesn't Minato-sensei or Kushina-nee talk? What, did someone cut out their tongues in the last few minutes while he wasn't looking?)

The tension builds and Obito gives in.

"I don't- I don't like Kakashi like that," the words fall out and Obito regrets.

Didn't they just finish this conversation? Obito is pretty sure that the last monologue pretty much hammered the last nail into the coffin. He's said everything he has needed to, why is he even bringing this up again?

"I don't like him like that. I-"

The words flow out from his mouth like sake at a bad and with a sudden clarity that only comes with knowing something terrible is on the horizon, he knows where this is going and he. Cannot.

"-like-"

Let. It.

"-Rin."

Happen.

Damn it all.

There's something that looks like pity on Kushina-nee's face and Obito feels ice cold horror run through his veins. Because…

It's in that moment that Obito laments over how much he fails at denial because he can't deny that it isn't just Kushina-nee and Minato-sensei in the room.

He can't pretend that there are only three people in this room. He can't delude himself into thinking that he just did not confess his love for a dead girl in front of her (however reluctant) murderer.

Slowly turning around, Obito looks at his silver-haired teammate and Kakashi- Kakashi looks devastated.

Obito's nails dig into his palm leaving four crescent shaped cuts.

Damn it.

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

"Obito."

Guilt, dread, fear… He doesn't know what he feels. All he knows is that that voice, that tone… It settles heavy in his gut and makes his throat close up.

"Obito." Kakashi says louder.

Obito doesn't dare look up. Doesn't dare look up into that guilt-filled, self-incriminating eye.

Because in that moment, he remembers that they don't know. They don't know that he knows Rin is dead.

That he can still feel her stone cold body turning hard and rigid in his arms. Can paint canvases upon canvases of dead, empty, brown eyes and can describe how the colour and life just drained out of her.

Rin is dead.

She's dead, dead, dead.

And… And it's all Kakashi's fault.

(No, wait. No, it isn't. Yes, it was someone's fault but that someone was not Kakashi. It was someone else, Obito knows this, he just. Can't. Remember. Who.)

So Obito can't do it. He can't bare look up into Kakashi's eye, when it's filled with so much… self-loathing, as he spits those- those lies. Because it was not his fault.

And Obito wants to say that. He wants to go up to Kakashi and say that. Say that it wasn't his fault, that it was someone else and that there is nothing, nothing, for Obito to forgive.

And maybe, if Obito had not gone through what he has, he would have. But Obito has gone through those experiences. He knows what it's like to wake up and realise, You've killed someone precious. He knows it like the back of his hand.

Kakashi doesn't need forgiveness. He needs redemption.

"Obito, I-"

Out of nowhere, a loud rumbling sound echoes through the room.

"Ah… Sorry about that. I haven't eaten since this morning."

"But wait, didn't you just have lunch at the hospital?"

"Yes, I did and if the pot plant in the corner mysteriously dies, it was not my fault."

"Obito!"

"Hey! I just said it wasn't my fault!"

What Kakashi needs is redemption. But the thing with atonement, is that before Obito can give Kakashi the chance, Obito needs to first acknowledge that yes, even if it was just a little bit, Kakashi was at fault.

So yes, Obito will allow Kakashi to try to redeem himself.

But not yet.

Obito isn't ready.

Now that the tense atmosphere is broken, Kushina-nee is ready to make up for however many months she hasn't been able to bug Obito.

"Sooo… Nee-chan?" There's a smirk pasted on her face. "I didn't know you thought so highly of me - dattebane."

Blood rushes to Obito's face. "I- I don't know what you're talking about."

"You called me, Nee-chan."

"Like hell, would I call an old hag," a vein in Kushina-nee's forehead pops, "like you nee-chan! You're obviously hallucinating in your old ag-"

"WHY YOU LITTLE-"

"ARGH! Let me go! Let me go!"

Kushina-nee, the witch, finally let's Obito out of the headlock and then proceeds to loudly proclaim, "Now, about your cute little lunch proposal."

Obito freezes.

"That dango place is actually a piece of crap, it's actually a blessing you never got to go, and I have no idea why'd you want to go to a random yakiniku place. Yakiniku Q is obviously the superior choice. Come on, I'm paying." Nee-chan pauses and takes the opportunity to wink at Obito's frozen form, "Unless you would rather eat with a special someone."

The blatant gesturing and hand-waving in Kakashi's direction gives little doubt as to who that special someone is.

"I TOLD YOU, IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" Obito cries, flushed red. Then in a milder tone, he asks, "Besides, you're actually paying? As in, not scooching of sensei?"

"Pssh… Minato pays, I pay. Same thing."

"Wait, what?"

"Please?" She turns her puppy eyes on Minato-sensei and like always, he crumbles faster than a wet paper tissue.

Whipped.

They leave for lunch and if Kakashi seems to be keeping his distance from Obito, Obito takes no note. Instead, he makes sure to take the seat right next to Kakashi when they sit.

So maybe he isn't ready to acknowledge that Kakashi had some contribution to her death.

But Rin or no Rin. Obito refuses to let Kakashi avoid him.

Those who abandon the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.

Omake 1

Urgh. Does he really have to eat this?

Obito jabs a particularly wobbly lump.

Eyeing the small pot plant innocently standing in the corner, Obito weighs the odds. Is it worth the risk?

"H-he," Obito freezes. How did- Didn't Mori-sensei just leave? Oh Kami, does Minato-sensei's on-off telepathy extend to other sensei as well? This isn't even fair. Mori-sensei's an iryo-nin sensei not a teaching sensei.

"Hee," Wait… That noise… it's not coming from outside, "Heeeeeel-" In fact… it almost… sounds as if… as if…

Dread sits cold and heavy in his gut.

"Looooooo-"

As if it's coming from below.

"Hello."

"ARRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! MUTANT TALKING HOSPITAL FOOD!"

Omake 2

It's in the process of grasping a piece of beef that Obito notices something.

A very shiny something.*

"YOU GOT MARRIED?"

"Shhh…"

Obito quickly clamps a hand over his mouth as if it'd somehow unsay the words he said.

This time quieter, he whispers, "You got married?"

Minato-sensei's smile is as radiant as it is abashed.

"We did," he interlaces his fingers with Kushina-nee's and Obito is taken aback by just how… cute they are.

Obito isn't really sure how to feel about missing the wedding. Everyone who knew sensei and Kushina-nee knew that their wedding was something a long time coming and as a romantic and sensei's student, he had always assumed he would be there to witness the ceremony.

But really, the only issue that he has is, "Who proposed?"

The chapter is a little shorter than usual, but I included Omakes... not entirely sure how I should have structured that. Should I have put the notes above the Omakes or below.

To be honest, the snippets are actually what I wrote into the story and then felt was too crack-ish.

Normally, I talk about things I think I should clarify here but to be honest, I'm lazy. So just feel free to PM me for clarifications.

*shiny something: I'm not sure, if shinobi in the Elemental Nations wear wedding rings. It wouldn't be very functional, would it?

Thank you so much reader, favourites, followers and reviewers (mainly reviewers), I think I would have updated a month from now without you guys.

That's about it,

~Anon