Author's Note: I don't own Naruto, if I did there would be cannon romance, ANY type of cannon romance, to be had. All of the dialogue is taken straight from the manga chapter in context.

I wrote this drabble in response to Naruto manga chapter 597: The Secret of Space-Time Ninjutsu. And even after all this time, I still feel like I'm being trolled by Kishimoto. lol Even if it does look like those Obito-is-Tobi theorists were right on the mark after all. ^^ I hope you guys at least get a laugh out of this, even if it is shaping up to be another confusing plot twists for us fans. XD

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Eye of the Receiver

"Why are your and his eye technique connected?" the Hachibi wanted to know.

Sweat dripped down the side of Kakashi's face as he voiced the shocking revelation that the pocket dimension his eye had created was the same one that Tobi was able to send objects ( and sometime people) to. It was times like these he wished earnestly that Minato-sensei was still around. The man was a master of figuring out conundrum's like these. He needed someone with prior knowledge of the situation and those involved. Kaskashi, Rin, Minato, possibly Kushina, and Obito's long dead parents were the only people who could really hold anything over his head...if in fact this was Obito staring at him from behind that Halloween attaché.

He needed more of that type of backup.

Naruto could only keep his edge and fight with everything he had right now. And Gai...

Gai kept looking between the masked man and Kakashi, which made his friend even more nervous. Because when the HELL was Gai ever unsure about something. He hopped around in a green leotard for god sakes. That alone screamed confidence and surliness like nothing else.

And if Gai wasn't the tiniest bit jealous of this odd connection between his 'rival' and the enemy, Kakashi would eat his mask. He also hoped to god Gai was straight, because he was still trying to kill those rumors about him and Iruka being a couple (which he was sure Naruto and Sakura had started to pay him back for making them wait so long for him to show up during their genin training days). He didn't need Gai adding to the speculations about his supposed love life.

"Where did you get that eye?" Kakashi asked Tobi, while trying avidly to hide his nervousness.

"Hn, it was during the past world war." The masked man answered neutrally.

"...where, you say..." Kakashi tried to get out a proper question.

"The fight at Kannabi bridge. Where you got to be called The Hero with the Sharingan." Came his answer.

"You..."

"I told you not to open your mouth so easily" Tobi countered as he pointed a finger at his opponent accusingly. "You're just words and no actions! What someone like you says is worth nothing!"

Again, Kakashi thought, this man was sounding eerily like a version of Obito gone horribly wrong.

Kakashi pondered what Tobi had said about Kannabi bridge being where he stole his sharingan eye. Obito's body had been buried under several feet of rock not far from there. Though the crushing weight of that boulder should have destroyed Obito's eye if not made it unsalvageable to any Danzo level grave robbers.

This was all starting to make sense, because the masked man's statements to both him and Naruto in the present had a familiar tenor to them. Tobi was sounding more and more like a disillusioned Obito than the 100-year-old madman he'd previously claimed to be.

Kakashi was going to rip off his mask and cackle like a madman, while trying hard not to cry, if this take-over-the-world-with-moon-prism-power plan was actually all his fault because he'd let Obito 'die' all those years ago. Honestly, it wasn't like he'd ever forgiven himself for it. Hell, he still felt haunted by the fact that he would have left Rin to die. Clearly the world was aiming to put one last chink in his armor.

Somewhere, Kakashi knew, the Third was rapping his head against a wall in the afterlife. Because really, if this evil mastermind actually turned out to be his former teammate, Obito, the formerly cheerful and most clumsy of ninja to pass the academy test... then they were all in big trouble when Konohamaru came of age in a few years.

Naruto's own status as Savior of Konoha after years of being called dead-last in his class was further evidence of that.

After that revelation, Kakashi came to the conclusion that he honestly would have preferred Tobi turning out to be Uchiha Madara. Chances were that if both of Obito's eyes were in his and the masked man's possessions, then he was probably looking at some twisted version of Obito. And despite the guilt and sheer torment he would be feeling if that ever became cold hard fact, the actual fallout of it would be something much worse.

The entirety of Konoha and the Uchiha Clan had been fooled by a dead man. Not just any dead man, but one who'd clearly formulated his plans while only 13-years-old with a newly realized sharingan.

Maybe, just maybe Konoha was finally losing its edge when it came to training up reliably clever ninjas, if this little charade had gotten past them nearly a decade ago.

Really though, if Naruto didn't manage to axe this guy, the ninja world was well and truly screwed.

Thoughts on who Tobi really is anyone? ;)