Sometimes, Dead is Better

Chapter 1

When teachers had asked him why he was attacking his classmates, all he supplied was that it was for the good of the school. And it was, he didn't understand their continuous questioning, or why they thought he was lying. It was a simple truth; the school would be better without these students causing trouble. The faculty did not comprehend this, and neither did his mother.

After he had left that school, his mother had looked at him with teary eyes. It had made his earlier indifference wash away, he had hurt her, and to him, that was the worst thing he could do in this new world.

She had asked him to try to not get into any more fights. She did not make him promise, but he promised her silently, anyway. He never wanted that look on her face again.

The third time he was kicked out was not because of a fight. This school was larger, and the teachers kept information from their students, so Obito decided to do some snooping.

He was by no means tech savvy, technology was new to Obito in every way, but it didn't really take a genius to hack into low-security faculty files.

He did not, however, take into account the many monitoring devices that were stationed on each computer.

And now here he was at his fourth school, pacing down the long hallways as boys of varying sizes babbled to each other. Their individual voices blurring into one nonsensical hum.

He was brought back to his surroundings when he felt a presence approach him. He could not sense or control chakra anymore, which was something that greatly irritated and bothered him, but he could still sense a bodily existence advance towards him from behind. He had his shinobi training to thank for that.

Not even a second later, a short curly-haired head popped up next to his right shoulder, his kunai-wielding hand, he thought passively.

The boy, an ally named Dontae, smiled timidly up at him through brown spectacles. He was the student chosen to show him around on his first day here, and he had followed Obito around ever since.

He knew Dontae considered him a friend, one of his only friends if Obito had to guess, but Obito did not find anyone from this universe a friend. They were only temporary allies. They were there simply for if he ever needed some sort of back-up. Even though he doubted he would ever need the help from any of the school children.

Dontae was not supposed to be a part of this school, he was not troubled, far from it actually. He was part of a program the school held to integrate normal students in with the difficult ones, as a means to help them learn to behave.

The curly haired boy smiled shyly up at him, he was hunched over into himself, the navy blue school uniform was wrinkled around his stomach and was much too large. His head bowed slightly and he was gazing up at Obito with wide, innocent eyes. It was submissive body language that was common from the small boy.

"Good morning, Tobi!" He tittered, offering a nervous smile.

Obito turned to him and offered a firm nod of his head, his unruly head of hair bobbing in the process.

"How are you today? It's almost Valentine's Day, are you excited?" He queried, looking at him expectantly.

Obito shrugged, indifferent to the foreign holiday, and unwilling to play twenty questions with his classmate. Dontae continued to babble on about what he would be doing for the festivities, while Obito listened with half an ear.

Kami, was Obito glad he had outgrown his loquacious mannerisms as a child. Was this how Kakashi felt whenever he would try to talk his old teammate's ear off?