Continuum

Chapter 6

Chapter warning: Suicide ideation. Unreliable narrator.

-x-

Obito feels stifled.

However, It wasn't the weather that was making him feel this way, the wind rather chilly to the areas of exposed skin. To Obito, the cold has never been an issue, as Hi no Kuni's winters were kind to (healthy) Uchiha shinobis, the innate fire nature in their chakra coils allowing for them to stay unfairly comfortable even with only a thin layer of clothing as protection. Pride notwithstanding, from what he remembers in the history textbooks, this was also one of the main justifications why the Uchiha clan has always, continuously, refuse to move to another country despite the countless warfare they face over the centuries to protect their territories.

What was ultimately making Obito feel stifled was reality in itself. It mocks him for his failures, the plans Team 7 had painstakingly built were undone in a single moment of revelation, made pointless in the face of Obito's bad karma.

Hikaku has been trying to get a response out of him for some time now, but Obito wasn't in the mood to humor anyone at this point in time, his selective hearing having activated up upon command. In actuality, the other Uchiha should be relieved that he feels too stifled to move right now, too tired to do anything but lie down pathetically on the dirt road with his eyes tightly shut, and try to sleep the fatigue away. His physical exhaustion and mental breakdown unknowingly saving Hikaku from the fate of being skewered by Mokuton roots on instinct alone.

When he feels warm fingers touch lightly on his shoulder, he recoils, rolls away and presses his face against the ground, tiny pebbles digging into his scarred skin, yet he cared not for such minor inconveniences.

When he feels the same warm fingers try to prob him into getting up, he curls tighter into himself and firmly keeps his eyes shut. He refuses to open them, his subconscious desperately clawing for an escape from this nightmare-turned-reality. He fears losing more of his sanity as soon as he confirms the era he has landed in.

If he were to succumb to eternal sleep, if he were to deny reality, if he doesn't try to do anything and let himself waste away... he wouldn't be able to fuck up anyone's expectations of him anymore. The idea of migrating to the Pure Lands became more appealing as time passes by.

Obito wishes he could muster up some kind of willpower to bulldoze through this sticky situation, but such mental strengths had all been sucked dry after he had turned fourteen years old, along with probably three-quarters of his sanity. Now, he was practically a shriveled up carcass on the ground. Woefully pathetic, if he borrows old man Madara's dictionary.

His chest became heavier at the reminder of his mentor; constantly cranky, the definition of supercilious, and stronger than every single one of them, yet dead because of Obito. Just like Rin. The same could be said about Kakashi. Obito had even used his own two hands to cause the death of the remaining Bijuu and Team 7 because of this ridiculous time travel plan of theirs, yet he foolishly wasted their sacrifice by not inputting the correct dimensional coordination-

He immediately cut off that particular train of thought as soon as he feels the familiar sting in his eyes, stubbornly refusing to give in to the temptation to bawl his eyes out (he was supposed to be escaping reality, not reinforcing it). His bones begin to feel as cold as his heart, but he stubbornly refuses to reach out to the warmth at his back. His entire soul was crying out for some kind of comfort, but he stubbornly refuses to allow the pleas to leave the tip of his tongue. However, he couldn't quite hold in the whimper from escaping his lips.