To Be Lost On The Road To Life

Passing Days

Obito walked through the crowded streets of his home village, humming a random tune as his eyes drifted and took in his surroundings.

He had just finished another D-Rank with Team Seven and decided to take to the streets, wandering around while admiring the fact that Konoha was alive and bustling. It was a habit he had picked up when he arrived in the past. He spent much of his free time either at the Hokage Monument or meandering about the place, absorbing every minute detail that he had missed when he was younger and more prone to taking advantage of the peaceful life.

Obito probably wouldn't have developed the little ritual had Team Seven been out of the village and handling C-Ranks(as they had been the first time around at this point in time), but the man-boy had apparently changed enough to the point where that simply wasn't happening this time. They had been stuck with D-Ranks for a couple of weeks now, and as such it was easy for Obito to adopt the habit of quite literally walking down memory lane.

He was happy with the new arrangement if one were to ask, but the prolonged periods of time where he was alone made it difficult to keep up his metaphorical mask of "younger Obito." Transitioning from his normal demeanor to what he remembered of his old self was no easy task, and while it would have been near impossible to maintain the facade over the course of a week-long C-Rank, it was also difficult to switch between the two when needed or when off-duty. It was ironic, but in this case, the fact that Obito had been disoriented and with a death-wish when he first met up with his team at the hospital actually worked in his favor. He was not the best actor when dealing with his loved ones, and as such, he tended to have small slip-ups where he would zone out and think about the past and future. Luckily, both Kakashi and Rin seemed to attribute his sudden absence of mind to the traumatic event that they suspected him having experienced.

It wasn't exactly a lie, of course, and it was easy to use that to his advantage. Obito had indeed changed due to a traumatic event... Though, it was less like the two-day-long one that they assumed it was and actually more of a near-twenty-year period of hatred, pained memories, and insanity.

They didn't know that though, of course.

A shock of golden-blonde hair spotted in Obito's peripheral's made him spin abruptly to the source. He smiled as he recognized the figure and hurried to catch up with his sensei, who appeared to be somewhat lost in his own thoughts. At least the sickly pallor he had a while ago was gone; he was still a little pale and seemingly drained of energy, but his spirits were certainly lighter than they had been.

"Minato-sensei!" The blonde looked up as Obito fell into step beside him, a grin in place. "What were you up to? I rarely see you these days."

Minato offered a small smile in acknowledgement of the boy's greeting. "Hello to you too, Obito. And I was actually on my way to the Hokage tower..." He trailed off, a thoughtful frown in place. "... Sorry, I know I haven't really been around lately. Business and duties to take care of. But that reminds me." The blonde scratched the back of his head, as though nervous about something. "I, uh... I wanted to know, how are the living arrangements for you?"

Obito blinked. "... Huh?"

"Ah, well, I've been busy with other things lately, as you know..." Minato gave a nervous chuckle at Obito's gaze. "I wasn't really able to ask until now. I'm really sorry about that, I wanted to make sure that you were completely comfortable at the apartment, but I never got around to doing so. Kushina wanted to make sure that you were fine with things, too, even though she hasn't been home for a while."

The Uchiha didn't miss how Minato failed to answer exactly what was going on. While he had made a silent promise to wait until the man told Obito himself, it didn't mean that the man-boy couldn't try and squeeze some information out of the blonde. He was worried, and some reassurance could help. "Speaking of which, sensei... both you and Kushina-neechan haven't been around much. I get that you're busy, but Kushina-neechan hasn't been home at all." His eyes narrowed at the carefully blank look that Minato's features took before being replaced with a forced smile.