Chapter Text
Death made life completely meaningless. It was a depressing thought for some, but, in a way, it was comforting for Obito. After death, there could be no more mistakes, regrets, and failures. The ones he had committed, irreversible and impossible to fix, would no longer be able to follow him. It wouldn’t make up for anything, but he wouldn’t be able to torture himself over it anymore. Maybe it was a selfish escape, but it was still a comforting thought. There was going to be an end to this all in the form of simple and inevitable death.
Obito was falling apart. Literally.
There was a fucking hole in his gut from Kaguya’s attack, huge and crumbling apart his body and — he didn’t even know how he was still standing. An attack called ‘All-Killing Ash Bones’ didn’t seem like something he could come back from.
And it — hurt. He had dealt with pain before but this... The sensation of his body cracking into pieces and falling away from him was somehow even more painful than it sounded.
He breathed slowly and shallowly, very aware of the sensation of his entire stomach gone to dust but he resisted the temptation to look at it again. Instead, he kept his eyes ahead even as everything began to blur and the fantastical dimension faded into a big mesh of vivid colors. His fingers twitched with adrenaline but he didn’t try to move, there was no way he’d be able to do anything, he just focused on staying upright. This was over.
It was a surprisingly easy realization. He was going to die, and it felt like a release.
The regret and guilt and pain that had been sticking to the edges of his mind and plaguing every thought— he had ruined everything, he had been lying to everyone and himself and this was all his fault— seemed like background noise at this point. It was really over now. There was nothing else he could do.
A sacrifice for Kakashi, and Naruto, and the world that he had been trying to destroy for so long. It would be a good death. Maybe it would make up for some of the torment he had caused, even just a little bit.
And Obito found himself rambling about his life to them. Talking pointlessly as his mind swam through memories, regrets, and thoughts all around —
This was what he deserved, it was the natural end to his story.
When he looked over his shoulder, Naruto was — still actually glowing, and met his eyes with a fiery determination. The kid had said something before about his ninja way. To always follow his own words, be unwavering, be true... Sometimes he reminded Obito a little too much of how he was before.
Back when everything was simple, working in a team with the girl he loved and a talented rival, his only goal to become the Hokage.
What he would give to go back there, back to that time with Rin and Kakashi and Minato, and fix everything. But those were just the final dreams of a man able to die. It wasn’t going to happen. His face was cracking off into ashy bits, and everything was numb, and it was time to finish up.
Final words? Well, the one thing he truly hoped for was that this world that he had destroyed could be saved. And Naruto would do that, that was enough.
"You better become Hokage."
Defeat Kaguya, save the world, become the Hokage, and make everything better. Fix what Obito had broken and live the life he had always wanted.
At this point, everything was numb. Feelings and senses. It was all a dull buzz.
He might’ve heard the ghost of an ‘I will’ before it was over. His body shattered, or fell apart, or turned to dust, or — something. It didn’t really matter how, he was dead.
What would happen next was a complete mystery to him. He had never truly thought about what would happen after death, it had always just been the next step in the plan. Death didn’t matter in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, he had told himself. But now, real death, what would happen? He didn’t deserve anything, to make amends or see Rin one last time would be nothing more than a wishful thought —
Whatever was awaiting him in death, he would welcome it. Because he deserved it.
But, there were barely a few seconds of darkness before he woke up.
...
Obito blinked open his eyes to warm sunlight on his face and the sight of a very clear, soft sky. There was the faint chirping of birds in the background and a gentle breeze and everything was so serene and calm and so very wrong.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
He died. He was sure of that.
For a few minutes, he just breathed it in. The cool air, and the smell of untainted forest, and the lack of pain were almost nice if he completely ignored that he was supposed to be dead.
Then he brushed a hand through the grass, feeling the texture and the edge of the blades and the healthy dirt underneath. A world unmarred by the war and Kaguya.
And he brought his other hand up to his face and looked at it. Black leather gloves against the blue sky. Stretched his fingers, movements were easy, and he could feel the rough inner material against his skin. No problems at all, nothing, not a single thing to point to that showed he had crumbled apart into ashes.
He activated the sharingan. Looked around, at the seemingly normal forest but — nothing changed.
Breathed in, breathed out.
This couldn’t be real. He died.
He pushed himself up by his hands, and stretched out his muscles. Everything felt fine. Looked over his clothes more. The leather combat gloves, the loose dull-colored cloak with a high-collar, dark full-body outfit underneath, shinobi sandals, and a mask. The mask.
Laying there casually, barely a foot away, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, was that familiar, orange, spiral, one-eyed fucking mask —
What the fuck?
It was the dream world. Kaguya. It had to be.
He got up to his feet, spun and looked around again but it all seemed so normal. Even when he stripped off his glove, pressed his bare hand into the bark of one of the trees, it was the expected texture, and when his nails began to crack into it from the pressure, it was the expected pain.
It didn’t make sense. Why would he be aware of the Infinite Tsukuyomi? Aware that this couldn’t be real? And why, why was he here?
The whole point of it was to put everyone into a hallucination of the perfect world for them. How was this — a random forest in the middle of nowhere, dressed in his Akatsuki clothes, alone — how was this the ‘perfect world’ for him? It should be him, in a world with Kakashi and Rin and Minato, living peacefully but if it was like this —
That couldn’t be right then.
This couldn’t be the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
He began to walk, to really look around, to figure out what the fuck this was. It was just a forest, green leaves, brown trees, branches and grass, and literally nothing fucking notable.
The other possibilities? He kept walking, speeding up. What other possibilities were there? If he didn’t think about it too hard, just pure optimism, maybe Naruto succeeded, maybe the Fourth Shinobi War is over and they’re at peace and somehow Obito came out alive. Maybe everything turned out fine and there was a perfectly normal explanation for this, for why he was fine to be living, and moving, and — sprinting through the forest at this point.
But — no. He couldn’t accept them because — he died. He was 100% sure of that.
Obito stumbled forward, too much tension and too much panic, with the sharingan spinning anxiously, making all the mundane details of the forest more sharp, visible, and still so fucking normal.
What the fuck? What the fuck? What the —