Hope Flies on Wind-bent Wings

when we were all together

[[ A/N: Hi! This is the third installment of a series. The first story is called The Windmill Turns Both Ways. Read it at https://www.wattpad.com/story/44217012 if you're new here!

I didn't think I'd continue the series this year. To be honest, I wrote this because trying to write was like turning a rusty faucet over and over, and this is the only thing that would come out! Times have been tough. So, here is a side story about Obito. It will be somewhere between 50-100k. I hope you can forgive me for any errors, as I spent less time planning this than usual :'D ]]

Obito woke clawing at his throat. He couldn't breathe.

He sat up gasping, saw the dim, familiar lines of his bedroom and realized he wasn't suffocating at all. His shirt had gotten bunched up underneath his arms. Embarrassed, he pushed it back down.

Obito breathed, staring into the dark, and waited for his heart to slow down.

Just another bad dream.

Lately, they came far less frequently, and didn't leave him feeling like a zombie the rest of the day. But touching the Sanbi, being awash in its angry energy, and seeing its host die had certainly left an impression.

It had to be close to morning. There was no point going back to sleep now.

Obito sighed and sat up onto his knees to nudge his window open. The cool night air and the fresh smell of outside caressed his face, and he drank in a deep breath of it. The scorching summer was finally over, and the nights were becoming chilly again. The morning smelled like autumn.

It was almost a year since he'd fallen into a river bordering the Land of Lightning and woke up in another timeline. Four months since he'd witnessed the assassination of a jinchuuriki and the near-death of his closest friends. Since they had lost to Orochimaru.

Naruto still insisted on calling it a draw.

Obito sat at the window for a while with his chin resting on crossed arms, mind blank, enjoying the fresh air. But he pushed himself up when he noticed the sky was getting lighter. He twisted to look at the clock at his desk. Nearly seven.

So much for sleeping in on one of his last days off.

Obito turned back to close his window, but he jumped and flailed in a single motion when he was faced with a hooded figure crouched on his windowsill.

His back hit the floor and he pulled himself up, heart in his throat.

"Yo, Obito!" Naruto pushed back his hood and grinned like a fool. Which he was. Currently. And most other times, as well.

"What the hell are you doing?" Obito hissed and pulled Naruto down so hastily that they both rolled backward, but Naruto quickly bounced back onto his feet with a grace that proved his Frog Kumite lessons were still going well. He stepped nimbly out of reach as Obito took a swing at him.

"Hey, calm down! Don't worry about it! I've got a disguise." Naruto pointed at his bare head.

"You call wearing a hood a disguise? When you have actual disguise seals from Kushina-san? And the ability to Henge?"

"—And I'm not really here right now, anyway."

Obito gave up his attack and sat heavily on his bed with a sigh. Talking to Naruto's bunshin was always weird. "What are you doing here? There's no way they let you go outside with Fugaku's squad still on watch."

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm not here." He frowned, then added, "I'm a bunshin."

"I figured that out. That's not what I mean." Obito shook his head and stood up. "What's wrong? Do you want to go home?"