Rewriting History (Obito x Reader)

The Limit

Something else was gnawing at him, too. He'd wanted to speak up for a while but strangely found himself unable to. After a few more moments had passed, Obito finally swallowed his pride and spoke.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled and slouched deeper into his sleeping bag.

"I...beg your pardon?"

You turned to face him; brows furrowed. Obito was apologizing? For all the years that you've known Obito, one of the things you understood about him the most was that he rarely apologized. You noted the only other time he had ever said sorry to you was when he was shouting it frantically, trying to put out the flames on your dress caused by one of his fireballs while sparring with you that one time. You just assumed that 'sorry' just wasn't in his vocabulary.

But this apology was different. It was soft, genuine, and filled with so much emotion that it caused you to pause for a moment.

"I – I said that I'm sorry... for pushing us so hard..." he said. His eyelids were low in both guilt and exhaustion. "We need to find Rin, but I haven't been paying attention to what's been going on with you. I know you're trying your best. I just..." 

Obito began tightly squeezing a bunched up portion of the inside of his sleeping bag. You didn't need to see it to know that's what he was doing – you heard it.

You couldn't help but grin at Obito's rare display of vulnerability. It was a side of him that he didn't allow people to witness often, not even Rin.

Your mind began trailing off at the thought of Rin. You had been trying to discern the state of Obito's feelings for her for a while. When the three of you were younger, Obito always sported a blush on his face when he was around her. There was a light in him – but now, there was nothing like that around her. The light diminished. Your eyes squinted for a moment, fighting to understand why.

It couldn't have been that he liked somebody else; the only girls he was ever around were you and Rin. You thought that you made your feelings for him unmistakably clear during that assassination mission, but he never openly reciprocated, so you chose to let things be. You were just thankful that Obito was still your best friend and the three of you were able to escape that prison unscathed.

Well almost anyway, you winced at the thought and grasped your previously broken hand.

But I shouldn't be thinking about this now. I should be tending to my friend during his moment of weakness.

"Hey, I get it. You're just looking out for our friend. If I were to get kidnapped, I –"

"D-don't say things like that!" Obito snapped, his head whipping in your direction.

You subconsciously pulled yourself deeper into your sleeping bag. "Wh-what do you mean? Things like what?"

Obito stared at you with a look of distress on his face before it relaxed into a softer, more embarrassed one. 

"I... didn't mean to say it like that. Just hearing you talk about yourself that way... it... it scares me," he stammered, averting his eyes to the ground by your face.

Obito? Scared?

Obito was holding back when he said the thought of losing you scared him. He was beyond terrified of it. Ever since that first mission, he swore that he'd never let anything happen to you. Just thinking about you getting captured and losing you was too much for him to bear.

"Hey," you whispered, prompting Obito to shift his eyes back up to meet yours, his look of shame melting your heart.

"Relax. I'm here. And we're going to find her, I'll bet ramen on it, my treat," you said with a smile and a wink in hopes of lightening the mood.