Rating: PG / K+
Disclaimer: Naruto is Kishimoto's.
Summary: Obito always seems to have a smile on his face.
Theme: 064. Fall (
fanfic100)
Ask anyone in Konoha and they will describe Obito Uchiha as a sweet, yet unrepentant little scamp with a three-mile-wide grin. When he is not smiling, he is either asleep, eating or in Kakashi Hatake's presence. Barring those three situations, he somehow manages to be the opposite of everything "Uchiha".
The description is far from true in more than one way. If Obito is mischievous, he learned it all from his two older brothers, who were known as the bane of every Academy teacher unfortunate enough to have to put up with them. Rumours had it that the staff party celebrating the two boys' graduation lasted for weeks. It would have gone on for longer, but it died a sudden, apoplectic death when the teachers heard that The Twin Terrors' little brother was enrolling the next year.
As for his grin, three miles is an obvious exaggeration. It is very true, however, that Kakashi has a gift when it comes to ruining his good mood. The two repel each other like two magnets touching on matching poles.
Something else the general population of Konoha might say about Obito is that he is quite the flirt among the girls. This is not at all true and it is rather confounding where the idea even came from. Ever since his first day of Academy, right about at the same time his teachers cursed every known god for sending them another little Uchiha prankster demon, Obito has known that there is only one girl for him. No other could compare, regardless of how many cute pigtails and colourful bows and adult makeup they tried to wear.
That girl is Rin.
Ask Obito to define himself and he will say "Rin". He sometimes goes to sleep clutching the same shirt he wore during the day, imagining he can still smell the faint perfume of Rin's brown hair on it. He dreams of her wanting to be with him and has nightmares in which she does not. He has lost count of the number of times his friends have laughed at him for getting beaten by a girl when teachers pair him up with Rin during training. He simply cannot get himself to lift a hand against her, not even in self-defence, since he does not want her to look bad for missing any hits.
Surprisingly, for a long time, no one notices his hopeless puppy-dog love. It made for an interesting emotional roller coaster of a graduation day. As the teachers once more broke out the good sake to celebrate their freedom from Uchiha hell spawns in a quiet corner, Obito went from ecstatic for being on the same team as Rin, to annoyed that his other teammate was an arrogant boy-genius. Along the way, he was also proud to finally be wearing a forehead protector, smug that his brothers could no longer hold it over him that they were almighty genin and embarrassed about the way his family reacted to the news that the rookie jounin Minato Namikaze was going to be his instructor, right in said rookie jounin's face. What really clinched his day, though, was the way Rin looked at Kakashi - already chuunin, how dare he be more than genin! - with nothing short of adoration.
As the team got to know each other better, the look did not fade. If anything, it started being accompanied by cute blushes and chiming nervous giggles for Kakashi to continue to ignore. Still, Obito did not give up on his girl. That would be as bad and as painful as cutting out an arm and a leg. He kept on smiling for her and trying to win her over word by word, deed by deed, gift by gift. Whenever he was met with disappointment, he made his smile stretch just a little bit wider. He was Obito Uchiha - not a hopeless crybaby.
The only times these smiles would fall, that he could not make himself believe that he would be all right and that Rin would be his girl like she was meant to, were on the nights he spent out with his team during a mission and laid down to rest.
Minato-sensei would light a fire and head out to take first watch. Kakashi would roll out his mat across from his teammates, on the other side of the fire, and turn his back on them. Rin would roll out her own mat next to Obito's, but she would do it with such a longing gaze in Kakashi's direction that she took twice as long. When she settled down, she would mutter goodnight and lay down with her back to him. Obito was left with a panoramic view of the back of the girl he loved and the back of the boy he hated for taking her away from him and then spurning her like she was inferior and unworthy.
In times like these, when the knowledge that he will never get what he wants and that he is powerless to do anything about it becomes too strong for the barrier of denial that usually shields him, Obito hates himself. In times like these, he wishes he was anyone but Obito Uchiha.