A Toast to the End of the World - 3
Part III:
He really hated sake, Obito decided as he asked the bartender for another bottle.
He swirled the remaining clear liquid in his cup one more time before downing it in one gulp. The taste was awful (he scrunched up his face) and the alcohol burned all the way down to his stomach. It was making him feel drowsy and numb - like it was too much trouble to ever get off the uncomfortable little stool he sat on and like there weren't many good reasons to do so anyway - which kind of defeated the purpose for going to that bar in the first place.
From the few occasions he had seen his teacher drink more than he should (and they had all been directly caused by Jiraiya), he knew that Minato was hysterical when he got drunk. The mighty Yellow Flash was reduced to a goofy, silly kid and lost all traces of ruthless ninja composure. His emotions overflowed and he became so innocent and earnest, that whoever was around him could not help but take pity, drag him to his house and put him to bed. (Tucking in the sheets was optional and Obito was not admitting that he had never done it.)
Kakashi had handled it better, but then again Obito had never seen him as far gone as Minato. The most the drink would do was make his white-haired teammate comfortable enough to leave his mask down between sips and, on rare occasions, send a few sparks of emotion into his grey eyes.
As for Rin - he swallowed dry and looked around for that lazy bartender -, Obito had actually never seen her drink. Truth be told, as the only girl on the team, they were all so protective of her that any of them would have beaten down any fool who so much as placed a cup in front of her. (Well, Obito would have let his fists do the talking; Minato and Kakashi would have probably been more sensible.)
Obito, on the other hand, became just the opposite of his teacher. It was a strange sight to behold because he was usually so cheerful and energetic, but sake just sucked all that optimism out of him and left him depressed. He had been hoping that, just this once, the results would have been different - but that was not to be. The only up side to how miserable he felt now was that at least he would have an easier time falling asleep, unlike the previous night.
He would be slumping down for a nap a lot sooner than he'd like if he didn't put his self-commiseration on hold, in fact, and so he looked up to appraise his surroundings, hoping to find something to distract him.
The bar was sparsely populated. No one else had come in since his arrival and the few patrons who had already been there were scattered throughout the room, leaving wide empty space between them and no misunderstandings about whether or not they were in the mood for talking. They kept to themselves, but there were a couple of men sitting in one of the booths who were giving the Uchiha some strangely interested looks.
Obito frowned. The sake made him forget that he was staring at them openly, and so he was even more intrigued when they turned away and adopted airs of nonchalance, like nothing had happened.
The back of his mind was tingling, telling him that he knew those two from somewhere, but their names were just out of reach. He didn't care about the strangers enough to strain his memory, though, and so he let them drop out from his awareness.
Unfortunately, the stares were not an unusual occurrence. At first they had come with the family name and then they had gotten worse once he'd joined the police force.
He sighed and sank a bit further into his seat. Rin's belongings were on the next stool and he still didn't know what to do about them.
*
It wasn't the first time Minato visited Rin's grandmother. When he had been assigned his genin team, he had made it a point to visit the kids' families and talk to their parents, even before he met his students. In Rin's case, since both of her parents had died on a mission while she had still been at the Academy, he had gone to see her guardian instead: her grandmother.
The elderly woman was surprisingly composed when she opened the door, holding herself straight with dignity. The jounin had perhaps expected to find clearer evidence of distress and grief, but her almond eyes didn't even show signs of redness when she invited him in and directed him to a couch.
They made small talk for a few moments and covered all the niceties before broaching the subject which both knew to be at the heart of the visit. Minato didn't want to be the one to bring up the delicate subject in case she wasn't ready to discuss it.
"I was there, you know," she finally said. "I saw the whole thing. I had gone out to buy ingredients for dinner, because I'd realised that all I had left in the pantry was my stored tsukudani. Rin hated tsukudani..."
The old woman paused and stared off into space for a bit like she was trying to muster the courage to start talking again - or maybe she was just caught up remembering her granddaughter and some past incident involving the seafood dish. Again, he waited and let her set the pace of the conversation.
"When the word spread that there was going to be some sort of public execution, I just knew in my heart that something was wrong. I knew something terrible was going to happen to Rin, but I never thought that..." she cut herself off, unable to help the few tears that leaked from her eyes. "She was always telling me not to worry about her, that she was invaluable to the village as a medic and that she was never even sent on away missions any more..."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Minato said, knowing the words helped so very little. "Rin was a lovely girl."
"She was loyal... why did they kill her...?"
He was seeing a lot of his late student's mannerisms reflected in the way her grandmother wrung her hands on her lap and kept her legs together at the knees and slanted to the side. She was refusing to cry, but anguish was written all over her body language. It was so much like what Rin had done when a mission had gone bad that old feelings of protectiveness for his students arose in Minato and took him back to a time when the burden on his shoulders did not feel as heavy.
"If you ever need anything, all you need do is ask," he offered.
She leaned forward to rest a hand on his knee and the small, grateful smile that lit her features was so Rin's that for a moment he let himself believe he was actually talking to the girl. "Thank you."
Minato left the house some time afterwards, by late afternoon. He wasn't feeling any better or any more at peace with what had happened to his student, but for the moment he had done all that he could.
An ANBU dropped next to him on the sidewalk. He was not surprised, aware that someone had been watching him closely for some time.
"The Hokage wants to see you, sir," was his message.
Minato nodded and the courier was gone as fast as he had arrived.
It was time to face the snake.
*
By the time Obito left the bar, the moon was high and most of the lights inside the houses had gone out already. He had half a mind to just drop Rin's box and drag it along home with his feet. The sake, however, hadn't affected him badly enough that he would risk damaging any of the more frail items, and so he set out at an easy pace back home.
He didn't run across anyone else outside, but he could not shake the feeling that eyes were on him. It might have been a remnant of the stares he'd gotten at the bar from the rest of the patrons or maybe some police squad on night patrol really was out there somewhere making sure nothing happened to him on his way.
When one lived in a hidden village, one got used to the feeling of being watched. It was a necessity in a world as dangerous as theirs, as it allowed off-duty ninjas to lower their guards and rest easy in their homes, secure in the knowledge that someone was out in the shadows ensuring no enemies came near.
It was the reason Obito had joined the police force. He had joined because of his family too, hoping to put to rest some of the old conflicts that had driven him away from his home with the Uchiha (and, so far, that wasn't going very well), but the wish to look out for his fellow ninja had been his one true motivation.
He was surprised, therefore, when someone dropped a few meters in front of him without previous warning.
He shifted the weight of the box so he could hold it with one hand, while the other moved to hover close to the weapons pouch at his back. Obito relaxed somewhat when he realised the stranger was wearing a Konoha forehead protector, but, after Orochimaru had taken over as Hokage - after what had happened to Rin -, that sight had stopped meaning what it had once used to.
"Obito Uchiha?" the stranger asked.
The nineteen-year-old still couldn't see the other's face, but he confirmed his own identity anyway.
"You were Rin's teammate, right? That lady doctor that was killed yesterday?"
Obito's jaw clenched at the casual way her name was brought up and at the indifferent tone in which the words were spoken. As soon as he could see the other man's face, he'd land a kick in the middle of it and break all of his sacrilegious teeth. This time, he nodded his reply.
"Oh, good..." the stranger said, stepping forward so the street light reached his face.
The Uchiha gasped. It was the brown-haired man from the file on Rin's office.
"Listen, this is going to sound weird, but I need to ask you a favour..."
Obito didn't give the man a chance to finish. His punch flew faster than lightning, and after he'd made sure that the other's nose would never again be straight, he clutched his flak vest and slammed him against the nearest wall.
"What the hell did you do to her?"
Part IV...
He really hated sake, Obito decided as he asked the bartender for another bottle.
He swirled the remaining clear liquid in his cup one more time before downing it in one gulp. The taste was awful (he scrunched up his face) and the alcohol burned all the way down to his stomach. It was making him feel drowsy and numb - like it was too much trouble to ever get off the uncomfortable little stool he sat on and like there weren't many good reasons to do so anyway - which kind of defeated the purpose for going to that bar in the first place.
From the few occasions he had seen his teacher drink more than he should (and they had all been directly caused by Jiraiya), he knew that Minato was hysterical when he got drunk. The mighty Yellow Flash was reduced to a goofy, silly kid and lost all traces of ruthless ninja composure. His emotions overflowed and he became so innocent and earnest, that whoever was around him could not help but take pity, drag him to his house and put him to bed. (Tucking in the sheets was optional and Obito was not admitting that he had never done it.)
Kakashi had handled it better, but then again Obito had never seen him as far gone as Minato. The most the drink would do was make his white-haired teammate comfortable enough to leave his mask down between sips and, on rare occasions, send a few sparks of emotion into his grey eyes.
As for Rin - he swallowed dry and looked around for that lazy bartender -, Obito had actually never seen her drink. Truth be told, as the only girl on the team, they were all so protective of her that any of them would have beaten down any fool who so much as placed a cup in front of her. (Well, Obito would have let his fists do the talking; Minato and Kakashi would have probably been more sensible.)
Obito, on the other hand, became just the opposite of his teacher. It was a strange sight to behold because he was usually so cheerful and energetic, but sake just sucked all that optimism out of him and left him depressed. He had been hoping that, just this once, the results would have been different - but that was not to be. The only up side to how miserable he felt now was that at least he would have an easier time falling asleep, unlike the previous night.
He would be slumping down for a nap a lot sooner than he'd like if he didn't put his self-commiseration on hold, in fact, and so he looked up to appraise his surroundings, hoping to find something to distract him.
The bar was sparsely populated. No one else had come in since his arrival and the few patrons who had already been there were scattered throughout the room, leaving wide empty space between them and no misunderstandings about whether or not they were in the mood for talking. They kept to themselves, but there were a couple of men sitting in one of the booths who were giving the Uchiha some strangely interested looks.
Obito frowned. The sake made him forget that he was staring at them openly, and so he was even more intrigued when they turned away and adopted airs of nonchalance, like nothing had happened.
The back of his mind was tingling, telling him that he knew those two from somewhere, but their names were just out of reach. He didn't care about the strangers enough to strain his memory, though, and so he let them drop out from his awareness.
Unfortunately, the stares were not an unusual occurrence. At first they had come with the family name and then they had gotten worse once he'd joined the police force.
He sighed and sank a bit further into his seat. Rin's belongings were on the next stool and he still didn't know what to do about them.
*
It wasn't the first time Minato visited Rin's grandmother. When he had been assigned his genin team, he had made it a point to visit the kids' families and talk to their parents, even before he met his students. In Rin's case, since both of her parents had died on a mission while she had still been at the Academy, he had gone to see her guardian instead: her grandmother.
The elderly woman was surprisingly composed when she opened the door, holding herself straight with dignity. The jounin had perhaps expected to find clearer evidence of distress and grief, but her almond eyes didn't even show signs of redness when she invited him in and directed him to a couch.
They made small talk for a few moments and covered all the niceties before broaching the subject which both knew to be at the heart of the visit. Minato didn't want to be the one to bring up the delicate subject in case she wasn't ready to discuss it.
"I was there, you know," she finally said. "I saw the whole thing. I had gone out to buy ingredients for dinner, because I'd realised that all I had left in the pantry was my stored tsukudani. Rin hated tsukudani..."
The old woman paused and stared off into space for a bit like she was trying to muster the courage to start talking again - or maybe she was just caught up remembering her granddaughter and some past incident involving the seafood dish. Again, he waited and let her set the pace of the conversation.
"When the word spread that there was going to be some sort of public execution, I just knew in my heart that something was wrong. I knew something terrible was going to happen to Rin, but I never thought that..." she cut herself off, unable to help the few tears that leaked from her eyes. "She was always telling me not to worry about her, that she was invaluable to the village as a medic and that she was never even sent on away missions any more..."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Minato said, knowing the words helped so very little. "Rin was a lovely girl."
"She was loyal... why did they kill her...?"
He was seeing a lot of his late student's mannerisms reflected in the way her grandmother wrung her hands on her lap and kept her legs together at the knees and slanted to the side. She was refusing to cry, but anguish was written all over her body language. It was so much like what Rin had done when a mission had gone bad that old feelings of protectiveness for his students arose in Minato and took him back to a time when the burden on his shoulders did not feel as heavy.
"If you ever need anything, all you need do is ask," he offered.
She leaned forward to rest a hand on his knee and the small, grateful smile that lit her features was so Rin's that for a moment he let himself believe he was actually talking to the girl. "Thank you."
Minato left the house some time afterwards, by late afternoon. He wasn't feeling any better or any more at peace with what had happened to his student, but for the moment he had done all that he could.
An ANBU dropped next to him on the sidewalk. He was not surprised, aware that someone had been watching him closely for some time.
"The Hokage wants to see you, sir," was his message.
Minato nodded and the courier was gone as fast as he had arrived.
It was time to face the snake.
*
By the time Obito left the bar, the moon was high and most of the lights inside the houses had gone out already. He had half a mind to just drop Rin's box and drag it along home with his feet. The sake, however, hadn't affected him badly enough that he would risk damaging any of the more frail items, and so he set out at an easy pace back home.
He didn't run across anyone else outside, but he could not shake the feeling that eyes were on him. It might have been a remnant of the stares he'd gotten at the bar from the rest of the patrons or maybe some police squad on night patrol really was out there somewhere making sure nothing happened to him on his way.
When one lived in a hidden village, one got used to the feeling of being watched. It was a necessity in a world as dangerous as theirs, as it allowed off-duty ninjas to lower their guards and rest easy in their homes, secure in the knowledge that someone was out in the shadows ensuring no enemies came near.
It was the reason Obito had joined the police force. He had joined because of his family too, hoping to put to rest some of the old conflicts that had driven him away from his home with the Uchiha (and, so far, that wasn't going very well), but the wish to look out for his fellow ninja had been his one true motivation.
He was surprised, therefore, when someone dropped a few meters in front of him without previous warning.
He shifted the weight of the box so he could hold it with one hand, while the other moved to hover close to the weapons pouch at his back. Obito relaxed somewhat when he realised the stranger was wearing a Konoha forehead protector, but, after Orochimaru had taken over as Hokage - after what had happened to Rin -, that sight had stopped meaning what it had once used to.
"Obito Uchiha?" the stranger asked.
The nineteen-year-old still couldn't see the other's face, but he confirmed his own identity anyway.
"You were Rin's teammate, right? That lady doctor that was killed yesterday?"
Obito's jaw clenched at the casual way her name was brought up and at the indifferent tone in which the words were spoken. As soon as he could see the other man's face, he'd land a kick in the middle of it and break all of his sacrilegious teeth. This time, he nodded his reply.
"Oh, good..." the stranger said, stepping forward so the street light reached his face.
The Uchiha gasped. It was the brown-haired man from the file on Rin's office.
"Listen, this is going to sound weird, but I need to ask you a favour..."
Obito didn't give the man a chance to finish. His punch flew faster than lightning, and after he'd made sure that the other's nose would never again be straight, he clutched his flak vest and slammed him against the nearest wall.
"What the hell did you do to her?"
Part IV...