Chapter Text
Displacement
Obito didn’t know what happened.
He knew he had been fighting Kakashi in the Kamui dimension and slightly had the upper hand but then, Kakashi whipped out some sealing shit and he knew he had to stop it before the silver-haired man was done. But alas, Obito fucked up his timing, or rather, underestimated Kakashi’s speed with the hand-signs and somehow, their two jutsu —the Kamui and whatever Kakashi had planned ended up colliding.
So now, Obito laid on his back, gazed up at a lovely blue sky with birds chirping overhead.
His eyes scanned his surroundings to assess the situation. Around him, curved earth stretched upwards, indicating that he was in a crater of some sort. Checking his body for damage, Obito wiggled his toes and fingers, he found that all his limbs were intact. But there was something off about his body. He felt whole again. There wasn’t the strange feel of the prosthetic limbs, but moreover, his clothing had a little more room than prior.
He reached a hand to the right side of his face and felt smooth skin. Smooth skin. His scars from being crushed under that fucking boulder were no longer there. Obito’s hand lingered on the area, and something washed over him. The first time he saw himself in the mirror, he truly believed that he was a monster. Face and body so deformed, he doubted that anyone would look at him normally. But now, his body was back.
What the hell was happening?
Hearing a groan coming from his left, Obito snapped to it and his eyes met Kakashi’s frame. Locks of black hair slightly obscured his vision, Obito gasping. Even his hair was longer.
Oh great.
Obito was not amused.
Kakashi was the last person he’d want to be stuck in a crater with out in the middle of fucking nowhere, but what could he do now? Suck it up and hope that they’ll be able to find a way back to…
Come to think of it, where the hell were they?
Sure, the Fourth Shinobi War was far away from all the villages and civilization on a whole, but something felt off here. It was so peaceful, almost as though there wasn’t a battle for the fate of the world happening. He rose to his feet and stole a glance at Kakashi’s form. His chest rose and fell, indicating that he was indeed, alive.
Seeing Kakashi’s unconscious state, Obito considered his options.
He could kill the man right here, right now, but he needed to know his predicament. He shook his head, ridding the thought. Even though in the Kamui dimension he had made up his mind to kill his former teammate, there was something deep down within Obito that didn’t want to do it. It was painful, agonizing even, but no matter how he played it out in his head, he couldn’t kill his friend.
“Fuck.” He hissed out and started his way up and out the crater. Getting a better view of his surroundings now, Obito truly didn’t know where the hell he was. He’s travelled the world in the name of Akatsuki, but he still didn’t recognize this area. It was heavily forested, and there wasn’t any specific landmark or village in sight. “Fuck.” He cursed again.
…
…
“Hnn…?” Kakashi groggily groaned out, but upon recognizing the body of Uchiha Obito, his eyes snapped open, the man springing to his feet, albeit stumbling thanks to chakra exhaustion. He knew using the jutsu would’ve drained his chakra immensely, he just didn’t bank on being caught up in it as well. He reluctantly assumed a battle stance, while Obito was sitting casually, staring at the silver-haired jounin as though he was an idiot.
Slipping into his paranoid elite ninja self, Kakashi’s eyes swept across the area, noting the crater he and Obito was in. Blue sky above along with dense cropping of trees made Kakashi think he was in a forest. But the crater, though…
Did he and Obito create it?
After all, they were the only ones in it, but something puzzled Kakashi. Judging by the size of the crater, it must’ve been quite an impact, yet, Obito seemed fine, and he’s only tired from losing too much chakra. Still, Kakashi was sure of one thing though. His jutsu worked. He had based it off of his sensei’s Hiraishin and with the whole war looming over their heads, Kakashi had taken things into his own hands to learn some advanced Fuuinjutsu for what he had in mind.
But still, some shit apparently went wrong—Kakashi knew because he wasn’t supposed to be here—and now, he’s stuck with Obito in an unknown dimension. In hindsight, Kakashi remembered seeing Obito’s eyes widening, and realization dawned on him like the boulder that crushed his teammate. Obito had probably used an ocular jutsu with either the Mangekyou or the Rinnegan the same moment he whipped out his space-time jutsu.
And as such, the results were…this.
“Are you going to just stand there and gawk?” Obito’s voice brought him back to reality. “Or are you going to come and kill me?”
Kakashi lowered his stance, putting his kunai back in its holster. “As if I could kill you.” He muttered. “I need to know where we are and how we got here.” There was a slight hesitation in his voice, and Kakashi knew that Obito would pick up on it. He wasn’t the knuckleheaded ninja he once was.
“Hn, I see.” The Uchiha nodded and rose to his feet. He made careful steps towards Kakashi, but that was when the jounin noticed it. The scars on Obito’s face were gone. Two black orbs stared back at him, even his clothes seemed a bit looser than before. His hair as well was a tad bit longer…
Kakashi didn’t know how to react.
Obito—dare he say it—got younger.
And that prompted Kakashi to check himself as well. He had been so frightened and slightly disoriented that he didn’t notice it. His clothing was loose as well! His jacket was lopsided and falling off one shoulder, the cut-offs of his gloves were beyond his knuckles, his shirt was extremely loose, and his pants was falling off his waist, settling on his hips.
“This is a disaster.” Kakashi mumbled out, patting himself and dragging the waist of his pants up further for comfort.
“It is.” Obito agreed with a hum. He was strangely calm in this situation, but Kakashi was glad for the peace. He didn’t think he could manage fighting Obito in his state. “So, tell me, Kakashi, what the fuck did you do?”
Kakashi was unfazed by the accusation. It somewhat reminded him of their past, back when they were still a team. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. The jutsu worked just fine.” Kakashi was partially truthful. Sure, the jutsu worked in terms of sending Obito to another dimension, but he wasn’t supposed to be, and they weren’t supposed to look so young.
Obito looked pissed. “Oh? I’m sorry.” He sassed in a high-pitched voice, making Kakashi cringe. His deep voice was greatly unsuitable for it. “I never knew that your jutsu was supposed to displace us somewhere where we know nothing about!”
“It was supposed to move you.” Kakashi replied coolly “I’m the one who wasn’t supposed to be here.”
Obito batted his lashes in disbelief. “Oh? I’m sorry.” He sassed out again, in that same irritatingly high-pitched voice. “I never knew I was supposed to take what you were going to throw at me like I’m a fucking sponge! You were hailed as a genius, so you should’ve had a fucking contingency plan! Which villain sits back, relax and let their enemy kill them?!”
Kakashi was glad he wore a mask. If he didn’t then, Obito would surely murder him for the absolute grin that was plastered on his face. Seeing him now, Kakashi was reminded of his Obito. The kind, sweet and always late Obito.
Kakashi shrugged his shoulders as his response. That seemed to set Obito off even more, the man going off on how geniuses are actually the dumbest people to walk the Earth and blah blah. Kakashi tuned him out, thinking of a way to get out of here. The first thing to do being in an unfamiliar environment was to gather intel. He needed to know where he was, but he surmised that given the absolute peace here, they were either far away from any war that could’ve been taking place, or there is no war any at all.
The second thing Kakashi had to work on was his appearance. As it is, he currently donned Konoha’s standard jounin uniform, just the headband that read ‘Shinobi’. A simple genjutsu should do it, but he didn’t want to waste chakra all the time for something so trivial. So, he needed to get a disguise, or at least, some new clothes.
Which would bring him to the third thing. Money. And in order to get that, he’d have to take on some simple work from whichever area they find themselves in.
“Right now, I’m seriously thinking about killing you.” Obito hissed, walking towards Kakashi. But the jounin noticed that he held no weapon, and there was no killing intent spewing out. If anything, Obito seemed really mad but not to the point of actual murder.
“Go on ahead.” Kakashi replied, lazily. “Be my guest.”
Obito growled, grabbed Kakashi by his flak jacket and hissed, “As much as I want to rip you limb from limb, I have a war to get back to.”
“How are you going to do that when you’re in a totally different dimension?”
Obito froze. “What?”
“You heard me. We’re in a totally different dimension.”
“Why would you do that?!”
“To give you a second chance.” Kakashi deadpanned, gaze unwavering.
Obito stumbled back and released him, eyes widening from the revelation. “You…what?”
“I wanted to kill you, I truly thought I did, but I can’t.” Kakashi said, eyes downcast. “You’re my friend, I believed that you can still be saved, so I made this jutsu. To send you somewhere where you can start afresh, without an ancient fossil —”
“Just stop.” Obito said, his voice descended lower as he took shaky steps back. “Stop.”
“No. What you did was wrong Obito. You said you wanted to create a world with Rin in it, do you really think Rin herself would approve of what you’ve done? You think she’ll want this?”
“Don’t think that guilt tripping me will work, Kakashi.” Obito snapped. “I’ve made up my mind. I will create a world that—”
“I wasn’t guilt tripping you.” Kakashi cut in, “You said you knew what Rin did to protect Konoha from the Sanbi, right? But then, you almost destroyed the very same village that she gave her life to protect. Does that make sense to you?” Kakashi continued, “You caused our sensei’s death, you killed Kushina when you ripped Kurama from her, and you forced their son into a life of misery, one where he didn’t know his parents’ love and affection, you ruined everything.”
A deadly silence fell between the two, their eyes locking on each other. Not even a minute later, Kakashi broke it, with one final piece of his mind. “And yes, I just guilt-tripped you.”
“Fuck you!” Obito punched Kakashi in the face, tears streaming down his eyes. The jounin did nothing to keep his balance, frankly, he was too tired to even try. “The world is hell! You have no idea how I felt! Rin didn’t deserve this! We didn’t deserve it! The world needed to start over! Hidden Villages fighting all the damn time over what? Nothing! And who’s left to pay the price? Us, shinobi! How could—”
“The world wasn’t the one that needed to start over, Obito. It was you.” Kakashi interjected quickly. “You could’ve returned to Konoha and let us get rid of Madara. You didn’t have to start the Akatsuki, you didn’t have to go around murdering people, and ripping out the Bijuu out of their jinchuuriki…” Kakashi trailed off when a tear escaped his eyes, “You could’ve come home, you crybaby.”
Obito couldn’t take this anymore.
But Kakashi was relentless. “I’ve thought the world was hell too! I thought you died, and then I lost Rin shortly after! And then Sensei! But because I was at home, in Konoha, and not talking to an ancient Uchiha fossil, I could come out of my depression and live! You, on the other hand, had no one but Madara! A psychopath! That’s why you should’ve dragged your sorry ass home when you saw how insane the man was!
“You hated that Hidden Villages were always fighting, your dream was to become Hokage! You could’ve ended that! Establish some diplomatic relations with other nations to stop it then! You could’ve done so much if you had just returned home, back to Sensei, Kushina…” Kakashi trailed off, letting the tension rise and the weight of his words sink in. “…back to me.”
It was like the dam broke.
Covering his face with both his hands, Obito broke down in tears. He crumbled to his knees and wailed. Kakashi exhaled a sigh of relief, knelt beside him and took the taller man into an embrace. He said nothing, instead, he offered his shoulder and comfort. The two remained like that for a while, Obito crying his heart out, and Kakashi soaking everything up. The shoulder of his flak jacket became wet with Obito’s tears and snot, but Kakashi didn’t mind it. Hearing Obito’s repeating ‘I’m sorry’ through his sobbing was enough to convince the Hatake that his dear friend was back.
…
…
“So, is the age-regression a part of your jutsu too?” Obito asked, eyes looking around the forest. The duo trekked on, deciding to leave the crater behind and explore. Knowing that they were in another dimension was one thing but knowing next to nothing about it…that’s where the problem lay.
“No, not really. When I saw your scars back on the battlefield, I decided to tweak my jutsu a bit to get rid of it. Alas, it de-aged us instead.” Kakashi inspected his arms and legs and could deduce that they were in their early twenties. They had gotten a little bit shorter and lost muscle mass after all.
“They were the proof of a warrior.” Obito huffed. But then, he turned his face away and murmured, “Thanks.”
“Well…”
“But your stunt took my Rinnegan! How am I supposed to function now?!”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen! The jutsu was supposed to dump you in another dimension, without your scars! That’s all! I don’t know how I don’t have the sharingan nor you, the Rinnegan!” Kakashi countered. “Maybe you need to activate it. Pump some chakra into those eyes of yours and see what happens.”
“Heh.” Obito huffed. “I’ll save that for another day. By the way, did you at least do research on the dimension you planned on dumping me?”
Kakashi gave Obito a blank stare.
The raven-haired male knew all too well what that look meant. “How could you!? You were just gonna dump me somewhere without proper research?”
Kakashi smirked underneath his mask, “Oh? I’m sorry. I didn’t know that I had to save you in the first place!” He used the same tone as Obito.
“But Kakashi, I have a right to ask! What if this dimension is nothing like ours!? What if only males can have children?!” He then let out a horrified gasp, “What if only females can have children!?”
It was Kakashi’s turn to pale. He really hadn’t thought about that. “In…In…In any case, you have nothing to worry about, being an Alpha and all.” His voice came out in a stutter, something a jounin of his calibre would never do. Unless it’s reading Icha Icha out loud.
“True, neither of us need to worry since…” Obito trailed off, realizing the tone behind Kakashi’s sentence. “You aren’t an Alpha, are you?” Kakashi shook his head. “You’re a Beta then?” Same response. “Holy fuck, you’re an Omega?”
“Bingo.”
“What? You’re an Omega with that attitude and shit?! How?!”
“I wish I could tell you but even I, myself, have no idea.”
“I can’t believe this. All this time, the great Hatake Kakashi was an Omega. And you managed to fool everyone…”
“I didn’t fool anyone. People assumed I was an Alpha without asking.”
“As if you’d tell them even if they did.”
Kakashi shrugged. The two continued their walk throughout the forest, and eventually, they took to the trees in order to not encounter anyone. They jumped from branch to branch in silence, and after a few minutes, the two began to wonder. There hasn’t been a single soul. Sure, they’ve encountered animals and such, but no human being in sight.
Obito gave Kakashi a sidelong glance, mouth itching to cuss Kakashi for their predicament. At least, he wasn’t the only one in this shit.
“Kakashi,” Obito started, “Don’t tell me that we’re the only humans in this dimension.”
Kakashi didn’t answer right away. He kept his eyes straight ahead, and soon enough they were nearing a clearing. The sounds of shouts —bickering, chatter, and laughter—permeated the air, and Obito visibly sagged in relief.
“No, we’re not the only humans in this dimension.” Kakashi finally answered.
“You little shit.” Obito hissed.
The two kept perched on the large tree branch, watching the people mill about below. It was a camp, but from what they noticed, they were a few merchants who hired Shinobi. Seeing the ninjas’ headbands with the star engraved in the metal, the two could immediately recognize which village they hailed from—Hoshigakure. Which meant, chances are, they were in the Land of Bears. That meant, they had two major countries nearby—Earth Country and Wind Country. Obito was not in the mood to face neither Iwa nor Suna nins and who knows if this dimension was still stuck in the Third Shinobi War.
“So, what do we do now?” Obito asked, eyes scanning the camp before them. The traps the shinobi set up were pretty rudimentary, and for men of their calibre, Obito and Kakashi bypassed them with ease.
“We gather information. But the tricky thing is, how do we get them to believe that a pair of wandering civilians got past their traps?” Kakashi mumbled.
“Ha! Geniuses, always overthinking.” Obito laughed, slapping Kakashi on the back, the shorter male nearly falling on his face.
Kakashi scowled. “Do you have a better idea, then?”
“In fact, I do.” Obito’s smugness was starting to piss Kakashi off. “All we have to do, is set off the traps. They’ll come running and see that it’s just a pair of “harmless civies”.”
Kakashi opened his mouth to retort but found that Obito was right. “It’s actually a good idea.”
“You should be glad I’m here.”
“Oh. Am I not?”
Obito rolled his eyes and the two headed back to the first layer of traps, put on their Henge and set them off. Kunai rained from above, Obito cursed as he had to deliberately let one stab him in the arm, and Kakashi got caught by the foot and now dangled upside down by a rope.
“Oh my God, if my cute little genin saw me now…” Kakashi groaned out.
“Fuck! Where are those shinobi?! I’m bleeding out here!” Obito hissed but he didn’t dare pull out the kunai. Even he had common sense not to do that.
By five minutes later, the Hoshi shinobi arrived, but only three out of the five. When they saw the two henged men, their eyes held pity in them. One male shinobi quickly tended to Obito’s arm with some ointment and bandages, while another assisted Kakashi. The last one stood afar off and watched.
“Thanks.” Kakashi said, after getting up onto his feet. When he was cut from the rope, his landing was rather unbecoming, but he had to play the ‘harmless civilian’ role. Obito had to stifle down a laughter, using the sting of the ointment to let out some form of sound.
“There. Luckily, the wound was superficial.” The medic-nin said, pulling away from Obito.
“Thanks.” Obito replied, flexing his arm a bit. He turned to look at Kakashi, who had trotted over. “But damn, were did those things come from, anyway?”
“I have no idea.”
Without needing to hear this conversation, the Hoshi shinobi could tell that they were civilians. They felt no chakra from them and the way they carried themselves…the shinobi knew they weren’t a threat.
…
…
“What are you boys doing out here?” One of the shinobi asked. The two were brought back to their camp, and upon explaining the situation, the suspicious gazes dissolved into pity. Obito hated it, but he channelled his inner actor just to get some information out of them. As soon as they got what they needed, Obito was leaving, and dragging Kakashi too.
“You see, we’ve travelled very far…” Obito started, trying to buy some time to further cook his lie.
“We ran away from home.” Kakashi said bluntly. Obito looked at him with widened eyes. “Home…was not…conducive to living anymore.”
“Oh no…” a female shinobi gasped out. “…you’re from the Land of Demons, aren’t you?”
Kakashi feigned surprise. “How’d you know!?”
The female shinobi scoffed. “Everyone knows about their civil war. There’s so many refugees turning up in other countries it’s frightening.”
Kakashi looked to Obito and nodded. The latter male soon realized that this was a tactic by Kakashi in order to swindle information without the other party knowing.
“I…I…I lost my parents.” Obito choked out. Kakashi would’ve given the man an award for his acting. “They were slain right in front of us.” A tear escaped Obito’s eyes and Kakashi swooping in to wipe it. After all, they were trying to keep up the charade. “It was awful. Everywhere we ran, there was nothing but death and carnage, and at one point, we thought we weren’t going to make it.” Obito sniffed, Kakashi by his side dabbing a piece of cloth to wipe the tears. “But by some miracle, we made it out. And we never looked back.”
Kakashi had to commend Obito. The way his body trembled, the tears and the faux choke in his voice…Kakashi wondered if Obito had chosen the wrong career path in life. He would’ve succeeded as an actor, no doubt.
“It’s okay.” Another shinobi spoke up in a soothing voice. “You’re far away from that chaos now. If you want, you can always settle in Hoshigakure. We have taken in a few refugees already.”
“Thanks but we planned on heading to the Tea Country.” Kakashi replied. It would’ve been a disaster if they met the other refugees. “My uncle left Demon Country and settled there long before the civil war broke out.”
“Oh. That’s good then.”
“Thanks for tending to our injuries, but we really have to continue our journey.” Kakashi then said, checking Obito’s arm. “We really have no time to rest.”
The five Hoshi shinobi exchanged glances. Even the merchants that they were guarding looked sympathetic. One of the men got up and disappeared into the nearby tent, and after a couple minutes, emerged with a pack.
“It isn’t much, but I hope these supplies can help you on your way.” The man said, thrusting the pack to Obito.
With faux trembling, Obito took the backpack and bowed his gratitude. While the Hoshi shinobi didn’t have much to spare, they each offered Obito and Kakashi a kunai, with the excuse that they’d need something sharp to defend themselves. Other merchants joined in a gave what they could, and by the end of it all, the two dimension-travellers were saddled with medical supplies, two kunai, some change of clothing, a map, some non-perishable foods, and lastly, some money. Of course, the two pretended as though they couldn’t take such gifts from the strangers, but the camp all agreed.
And with that, two of the Hoshi shinobi escorted Kakashi and Obito past the traps and left them on their merry way.