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They ache sometimes.
Not so much physically, but more...that they ached from the memories whenever he looks in the mirror. Looks at himself with his white hair, at the grooves where the transformation had left it's mark, where his skin was permanently pigmented to pure white much like his hair now was. Slowly he runs his fingers over it, wincing at how unfamiliar it still felt.
It's been three years since the war, he should be used to this by now. Used to the guilt that swells inside him every time he sees them, used to remembering how he almost hurt so many people, remembers how he had actually killed so many people. It makes him wish he never had them to begin with then he wouldn't be so easily recognized or noticed if he were to go back to Konoha.
But he is. No matter what Kakashi or anyone else said, he would be noticed and he couldn't bare to be looked at. There was no clan left, any remaining members of the Uchiha either dead or far away. There was no one he could reach out to, everyone he knew was either dead, busy or hated him too much to want anything to do with him...
"Obibiiii..."
Well...almost everyone he knew was three of those things. There was of course an exception to it.
He grunts as pale hands gently caress and stroke along the lengths of his arms slowly before closing over his hands. Obito almost groaned at the nickname; mainly because at this point trying to tell the zetsu who somehow survived and chose to stick with him-he will never understand why-to not call him something so stupid was a useless endeavour.
When Tobi made up his mind, Obito knew it was near impossible to stop him unless either he got bored or he just chose to shift his focus.
"What?" He mumbled as the Zetsu moved around to face him with his swirled masked face. The someone that used to hide his own from the times they were merged together and he remembers feeling...almost comforted by it. That he could have his face hidden from the world and let Tobi be the one leading things to make sure he had hidden himself away at the time.
Now? Now here they are with Obito constantly having to run around to stop whatever shenanigans that Tobi would try to do.
"You have the sad face again."
He sighs at the poke to his cheek, "I know."
"Whyyyyy? You can't always be sad like that Obibi! It's not good for you face. Maybe frowning too much has really made your face stuck like that..."
"What? Where did you-never mind," Obito sighs as he steps from the mirror, raising a brow at Tobi phasing through the wall behind him, "You wouldn't know, look at your face, still swirled as ever," he poked his shoulder and sighs as he rubbed the scars on his right side, over the pigmented arm that hangs by his side as he stands before the one person who hasn't left him.
"..Obibi...come here..." Tobi takes the scarred hand, "For the record, I do have a face under here buuuut it's a little weird. Kinda like Shiro Zetsu's, this face is just more presentable."
"Sage Preserve me," Obito shakes his head with a fond sigh, "You still have a lot of surprises don't you?" He does look down at the hand holding his arm, tracing the grooves where half of him had been crushed under the boulder. He continues to observe Tobi, rather fascinated at how calm he is. Isn't he angry? All his fellows were destroyed with Obito's help no less.
Why did he stick around? Was it because Tobi had given up on the idea of vengeance before it could fester? Obito pauses staring at the crack in Tobi's strange mask formed from his own white root tentacles, saw the ear there. Gently he reaches up to gently to gently give that ear a gently flick, watching his companion jump and move back a bit.
"It looks like I'm not the only one scarred by this whole mess..."
"SNEAK! SNEAKY OBIBI!" Tobi tapped at his chest aggressively, earning a rare snicker from the rather tired man. He reaches up then to give the exposed ear another flick, Tobi phasing back through the wall before Obito follows by opening the door with a loud, mischievious cackle.
It's just so rare he was able to get a drop on Tobi and make him the one flustered and maybe even a little annoyed! Obito manages about a few steps before he loses sight of his Zetsu. He takes a moment, his sharingan activating in his right eye to try and see where in this little house outside the village that the plant man he's become fond of went. He huffs opening his mouth when he winces as his eye aches.
The scars seem to physically react to it's usage as he breathes sharply and tries to apply pressure to make alleviate it. Right..right...he was warned by the healers before he was allowed this residence thanks to Kakashi pulling strings. If he uses it too long and with his scar tissue it would cause a lot of pain for him.
He hisses quietly as he bows his head.
Damned scars...damned body...can't even use it to fool around...
Tch... some shinobi I turned out to be, I can't even do simple things like play games..
.Everyone else has moved on to greater things, I keep lagging behind, why, why couldn't I have been smarter, why did i fall for it?
I could be with them, I could be a Jonin, I could-I could-
A hand presses over Obito's, wincing as it's gently tugged down and exposes his eye again. There's a little blood gathering in the tear duct as he finds Tobi has returned...and the Zetsu looked terribly concerned with the way his tilts his head, how he has gentle little tentacles extend from his fingers to gently clean away the blood.
Obito takes a slow breath to calm the racing thoughts-thoughts that plague his mind whenever he's reminded of his lack in abilities-leaning into the gentle familiar touch from those years of Tobi being merged to him.
"You're sad again, Obibi."
A soft snort leaves him as a manages a small little half smile, "Just...these old scars. They kinda hurt sometimes."
Tobi huffs a moment as he retracts the small tentacles to then gently pet back the soft white hair, "You should put ice on it then! Come on come on, I have seen lots of people do that, it's supposed to numb the pain."
He shakes his head slowly as he follows after him, gently giving his hand a squeeze.
At least with Tobi around life wasn't so bad after the war.