Work Text:
Obito had almost forgotten what it was like to rest under dappled sunlight. He breathed in the breeze; spring sweet after a trudging, icy winter. The trees swayed, the flow of the Naka tumbled over rocks and they were far from the muddy streets and noisy calls of Konoha. How long's it been since the three of us had a bit of peace? Obito wondered. Not for several years at least. And not truly since they'd returned from that other world. He gazed up at the weave of leaves drooping off the branches above. Has it really been over a decade? Strange how quickly the years had passed when at the time those two years had felt like forever.
He dug his shoulders into the thick fur at his back, finding a comfortable position on the grass. His lounging chair rumbled, the sound reverberating in Obito's chest. Bet we'd look a sight, he mused, lazing around with a bunch of dangerous 'yōkai'. He scratched his seat's wild, creamy mane and it gave another rumble, this one warmly content. But the three of them had become famous throughout the shinobi world for it at this point. Able to command yōkai to do their bidding and learn their powers as jutsu. Obito chuckled lowly to himself. If he had told those who truly believed that the much more mundane truth: that they were more like big, loveable companions, then Komainu Obito's ferocious reputation would take a sharp downward turn. As would Copynin Kakashi's and Ryū-tamer Rin's. Though Rin rolled her eyes at the moniker more often than not.
Across the clearing, the woman waded in the shallow waters of the Naka under the bright sun, Matcha, at her side, the machamp ever loyal to her trainer. The current flowed around their legs as together they splashed water on the dragonair that trilled in delight, the feathers of her ears fanning with flicks of water. Obito grinned as he watched Kiki rudely shake herself, spraying the water back the way it came. Matcha, in her indefinite state of undress, was nonplussed, while Rin's strangled noise of surprise was loud enough to hear from where Obito lounged as the woman was quickly drenched down the entirety of her front.
Obito sighed and tried to make it sound subdued, lest Kakashi hear it and ask. Behind Rin, Matcha, and Kiki, he spied a giant browned shell drifting on the river and a particularly fat politoed lazing on top of it. The large pouch on Katō's neck worked as he sunbathed on Isobu's shell, his eyes closed in a doze. The politoed was looking a little more rotund than when Obito had last seen him. Clearly Rin was losing the fight over restricting his diet and getting him to keep up with their training. It took a moment for him to spot Shu, but she was there too, the gastrodon occasionally poking her brown horned head out of the depths of the river, blinking all three of her eyes. Of the other of Rin's 'yōkai' present, Obito could only spy Mimo and Fuwa, seated together on the riverbank, the latter helping the togekiss preen his feathers with gentle strokes, while he pecked gratefully at the audino's hand.
Though he had seen her release them as they found their spot earlier that morning, Rin's sawsbuck was nowhere to be found. Nor her tyrannitar or aggron. But Toko and Mame were more likely to be out somewhere in the forest sleeping than causing trouble. Sakura, meanwhile, was no doubt attempting to impress the local deer; strutting about and rutting his new cherry blossom antlers. The stag had to be the horniest creature Obito had ever met. Rin's incineroar was the second.
Like this, Obito almost felt as though he could forget they'd ever returned to that temple to go home. That they rested on some riverbank in Johto or Sinnoh like the countless ones they'd camped at, fished from, and waded through; dozens of tiny barboaches and finneon swimming about their feet. That today they decided to be lazy and forego setting up camp until the sun started to set and Kakashi would insist on getting a move on to arrange a watch, even if by the end they hadn't feared any attacks in the dark of the night in nearly two years.
But that was another world.
Obito craned his neck back, taking in the sun. He closed his eyes and for a moment he truly was back in that other world. That peaceful world. Where children went on adventures, not picked up kunai and learnt how to die. They had their problems, he could admit. But on their return, all three of them had received a glaring reminder that it wasn't the same. Not even close.
They had sat in one of the kinder rooms within the bowels of T&I, handed in their reports, and were once again asked to sharpen the kunai they hadn't truly needed to use. Obito had kept his sharp, and sometimes practised with them — just in case. They all had. And on a small handful of occasions he'd had to use them. But by the time he returned to Konoha, his hands had grown soft, the muscles of his core lax, and his kata wobbly. Over the weeks his palms blistered and new calluses formed to replace the ones that had quietly disappeared.
They knew they would have to go back to reality eventually. Their time was temporary, even if they had stayed longer than necessary. Obito was glad he had fought for it; argued Kakashi down as the boy had jabbed his finger about duty. Even if he'd had to frame staying in a way that was more palatable to their shared sense of loyalty to their village. Even still, another part of him regretted it. It was moments like these that a yearning burgeoned in his chest. They had agreed to lie about how they managed to pass from one world to another, each wanting to protect that other place. The lie was nestled amongst enough truth that those who questioned them were satisfied. We could just disappear. Obito played with the idle thought and let it stray toward warm, fond memories a decade gone.
Somewhere, the palms of Ula'ula island still swayed in a seaspray breeze. Obito recalled the night the three of them sat on the shore together and watched the sunset throw colours that seemed to swallow the sky. There were the deserts of Hoenn, and the sandstorm they had watched in awe to the sound of howling wind and crumbling rock as a mountain wandered across the dunes, only to be told that what they had seen was so rare it was usually encountered in books and spoken of in fairytales. They'd walked the streets of the cities of Galar, Kalos, and Unova. Ones that seemed impossibly large and strange, with glass towers that reached the sky and 'trains' that made minutes out of hour long journeys, some of them faster than the fastest shinobi Obito knew of. There were the oddly familiar lands of Kanto with its 'old fashioned' architecture that looked like it could have lined Konoha's streets. And then there was Ms. Green's farmstead, their first place of welcome and their last, her fields carved from a forest, and Mount Coronet framed in her kitchen window between happy yellow curtains that had paled with age.
Obito breathed deep into the orange fur that pillowed his head and wondered how the old woman was doing. If she's even still alive. Young and stupid as he was, Obito didn't think he'd ever really thanked Green for pushing, prodding, and insisting the three of them go and venture out into the new world they found themselves in.
He knew Rin and Kakashi thought about it too: going back. Rin got a look in her eye when she carded her hands through Mimo's feathers, and sometimes Kakashi went quiet, stroking Kawa in his lap as he looked out on the horizon. None of them could or ever would forget the kind of peace they'd found those two years.
A familiar keen rung out above the clearing. Obito opened his eyes, squinting in the dappled light. Above the leaves, a shadow swooped. Another raced up behind it. A smile tugged at the side of Obito's mouth. Hokora and Toshin, caught once again in their usual dance. He leaned to get a better view as Kakashi's corviknight divebombed Hokora — a streak of shining black. There was another keen, this one edged with a fretful whininess Obito rarely heard since Hokora was a rufflet; more fluff than feathers. He could tell his braviary had no patience for Toshin's teasing today. He flapped wildly and kicked out his legs when Toshin swooped too close, the mystical flames on the bird's forehead pulsing.
Usually, Hokora had Sakebi on his side to defend him. But the noivern was currently hanging upside down from a nearby tree, his large ears kissing the grass each time the giant bat rocked himself. Big baby, Obito thought affectionately. The noivern could take Obito on his back, claw a man to death, and send pulses of pure power at their enemies. Yet shinobi would be less fearful of the 'yōkai' if they knew he liked to wrap his wings over his head and rock himself in his sleep, just as he used to do when he was small enough to hang from Obito's arm.
Hokora screeched again, this call irritated enough that Obito grumbled as he tried to get a better look. Toshin could be a little shit. And he was a proud little shit that only listened to Kakashi. He frowned, feeling a little defensive over his own big, dumb bird but Kakashi would just wave his concern away and tell him that Toshin would eventually learn the hard way not to torment Hokora.
The man himself sat reading a handful of feet away, propped against the base of the sprawling tree whose shade they shared. Kawa lay curled in his lap, her ribbons loosely wrapped around one of his wrists — a comfort to them both, Obito knew. Warmth tickled in his chest. Kakashi had pulled his mask down and streaks of light caressed the soft lines of his face. Stupidly handsome. It was good for Obito's health that that mouth and those lips were usually covered by cloth. Suddenly, the mouth pulled and Obito drew his eyes up to find that he'd been caught. Kakashi's dark eyes watched him, going soft and crinkling before he returned to his book. The tickling warmth made his heart thump. Obito was half-tempted to crawl over there, if not for his current supremely comfortable position.
Hime lay on Kakashi's other side, attentively and thoroughly cleaning herself while giving the occasional lick to a dozing Raku. She gave Obito an unimpressed stare when she noticed him and went back to licking her between the pads of her paw. Prim, proper, and snobbish. The houndoom only allowed Obito to pet her when she wanted him to. No matter how many treats Obito snuck her to get on her good side, or how many times he'd let her have the bones leftover from dinner, much to the chagrin of their other canine companions and on occasion — Kakashi's ninken. 'She'll get fat with how much you dote on her,' Kakashi had laughed. Maybe Obito just had a weakness for fire dogs, but the times she decided to curl up beside him in thanks were worth it. Funnily enough, she sometimes reminded him of Kakashi when they were younger and the boy was at his haughtiest. Beside Hime, Raku shook out her mane and huffed in her sleep, the big luxray's tongue poking in and out, miming the cleaning Hime took up of her mane once again. And next to the luxray, Taiko laid belly up, the brown lycanroc outright snoring with all four paws up in the air. They made a comical trio at Kakashi's side.
Of the rest of Kakashi's 'yōkai' that had decided to join them on their outing, like a few of Rin's, they were nowhere to be seen. Which, Obito found, also included some of his own 'yōkai'. Kakashi's mukrow was probably close by, roosting somewhere in the tree above. As to the whereabouts of Kerokero, Obito could only guess that the greninja was off sparring with his own grimmsnarl. The two of them seemed to come up with creative ways to commit to some kind of heinous challenge; almost as bad as Kakashi and Gai. Obito didn't know when Koshaku had encountered Konoha's Green Beast long enough to get some pointers, but of late he'd been showing some worrying similarities.
Obito didn't have to guess where he could find Kakashi's ditto. There was nothing like a man getting intimate with his lover only to strip his lover's shirt off and find himself in a staredown with a goopy smiling purple face. Or taking Kakashi's hand only for the ditto to try and slip up into Obito's sleeve instead. 'It's weird,' Obito had told him. But Kakashi had just shrugged and said he was used to it before grabbing the goop and letting the ditto wrap itself around his hand before he deposited it outside their bedroom door with gentle, affectionate words. Kawa, Shugon, and hell, the rest of them knew to make themselves scarce in their balls when Obito and Kakashi wanted time with one another, but apparently Narau had no such understanding of boundaries. Fine, Obito could understand that it came with the territory. Kakashi had fought with the ditto for so long and made use of its copying abilities to such a degree that at this point it seemed almost natural to find Narau attached to him. But still, that was besides the point.
That left Nyushi and Kara of those that had joined them today. The colossal alpha garchomp liked to please himself, and who the fuck knew where Kakashi's kabutops had wandered off to. It'd come back. He was glad the thing had evolved some years back before they'd returned. He'd been sick enough of finding the thing in his own sleeping bag when they travelled. Finding it in their bed would have had the creepy little kabuto banished to its ball.
Despite supposedly not taking everyone on their outing, if Obito knew his boyfriend, the rest of his team were probably floating around somewhere. While many of his and Rin's were content with staying in their balls — even today — Kakashi babied his own enough that the creatures preferred to be out of them. Though the man would never openly admit to doing so. More than once Obito had walked into their kitchen only to have the shit scared out of him when the other man's little prankster of a rotom jumped into the radio to make it burst into life at full volume because it found it funny. Or the time Obito had left the bathroom in the dead of the night to find what he had thought was a fully grown man asleep on their couch only to discover that it was, in fact, Kakashi's obstagoon, who decided she preferred to sleep out of her ball that night. Without letting either of them know. He'd been ready to lunge at her in his boxers, a kunai pointed straight at her furry neck. Kakashi, once again, had only shrugged and fallen back asleep after providing her with a few gentle, coaxing words.
Honestly, not that Obito was much better in all this. For his part, he'd grown exceedingly fond and therefore exceedingly lenient over Ayashī, especially after the confragrigus had saved his life, hiding Obito in his sarcophagus when he was injured and unconscious, even as the ghost endured the battering rage of their enemy. It had taken some time to understand that the yamask and subsequently the confragrigus was on the deeply affectionate and loving side. He just... didn't know how to show it in a normal way. Sometimes he grabbed with his ghostly appendages and sometimes it wasn't always Obito he latched onto. 'Your ghost tried to stuff me into his coffin,' was a complaint heard from Obito's other half more than once. During those times, it was Obito's turn to shrug.
And then there was a particular time when Sakebi had wanted to get into their bed which Obito had allowed, and which had made Shugon jealous when he wasn't usually allowed in the bed on account of being too big. And that saga had ended with two grown men squashed between several beasts on top of a broken bed frame. They'd had to shout Raku and Oku away when both of them emerged from their balls, hoping to join the pile. From that day on, both he and Kakashi had agreed none larger than Kawa were allowed on the bed and then only because the sylveon had used her cuteness against them by curling up on Obito's chest and papping him with her ribbons. And it was not as though Kakashi could say no to Kawa. He'd never refuse her anything. She was his first. Accidentally, maybe, and largely the fault of Obito's clumsiness, sure, but Kakashi and Kawa were partners; as close to each other as he and Shugon. Obito himself had a hard time denying Shugon anything, especially when the big pup whimpered and begged.
That was also the day they agreed on needing a bigger house. An apartment wasn't going to cut it anymore. They were both quietly and profusely thankful Obito's tyrantrum had decided to stay in her ball. She was a good girl. Most of the time. After the first and only time, she, at least, understood that she was not allowed to emerge from her ball unless they were outside. And not on the top floor of a five storey Jōnin apartment complex. That bill had cost them the pay of three S-ranked missions.
Obito shook his head at the memory. Across the clearing, Kuma and Croaky trained together, his urshifu sharpening his claws on a tree trunk, while the toxicroak shifted from foot to foot, pummelling at another. A large, dark shape flickered in the depths of the Naka, moving up from downstream. Obito ardently hoped that Mr. Fish hadn't been causing trouble that he would be hearing about later from some poor fishermen out on the river. The gyarados already had a reputation. And a bingo book entry. He didn't need 'terrorising the local populace' added to his list of feats, even if he was a gentle giant (provided Obito wasn't threatened with bodily harm in his presence). He watched as Zuki peeped her finned head above the water, riding alongside the dark shadow. Obito groaned. The gyarados and feraligatr had gone together. He would definitely be hearing about that later.
His despair must have shown because his lounging seat shuffled and Shugon twisted to swipe Obito's cheek with a wet tongue before he huffed and laid his head back down on his massive paws. He idly stroked the arcanine's fur beneath the scattered light shifting through the leaves. The quiet breeze was interrupted by Oku grumbling, rearranging his limbs to form a tighter ball of chitinous plates. They needed cleaning. He'd probably gotten something stuck between them that would require Obito wielding a knife to get it out. Taking pity, he clicked his tongue at the golisopod. Oku perked his head to give several affectionate whirring clicks in reply.
Noon came and went. And Obito was content.
For now — here — he was content. Maybe Minato, Kushina, and Naruto would join them later, bringing along the pair of pokémon they had gifted to their sensei and his girlfriend, who on their return had since become his wife, to their surprise. Obito had never seen Minato cry, but he had cried then and the man hadn't let his trio of gangly teenagers out of his sight for a week after, as though fearing they'd disappear again. It had been one hell of a story to explain to Minato-sensei, the Sandime, and then the council. And sometimes it had been a battle to keep their 'yōkai' out of the hands of that same council and other nations both. Somehow, thus far, they had managed it. Even if each of them had relented and given over a few spotted eggs that had mysteriously appeared in a nest of clothes in their cupboards.
Thank you, he silently told that little old woman, hopefully still puttering about her farm and feeding her breadcrumbs to a flock of starly somewhere another world away from theirs. With her terrifyingly large ferret and her crabby firebird who had still given Obito the stink-eye when they made their way back a year later than they said they would. He rolled onto his side and nuzzled the fur of Shugon's belly. The arcanine was warm and Obito found a little fragment of that peace. If only we could stay like this.
He didn't realise he had fallen asleep until Obito felt a hand carding through his hair. He blinked, groaning to find Kakashi crouched beside him, his mouth quirked and the look in his eyes fond. From her place on his shoulder, Kawa chirped. One of her ribbons extended down to brush against Obito's cheek. He caught it, waving it back at her in greeting, to the sylveon's delight. Kakashi relinquished his hand to steady his footing, accepting Shugon's affection with a scratch behind his ear as the giant dog butt his head against Kakashi's side. Behind them, the colours of the sunset looked ready to swallow the sky.
"That time already?" he murmured.
Kakashi hummed. "Afraid so."
He could hear Rin packing and sealing their lunch away in the clearing. Somewhere in the forest came Sakura's bellowing cry, the sawsbuck announcing his return in the evening air.
Obito scrubbed his face, picking the grit from his eyes. He studied his lover for a time before he hooked an ankle around Kakashi's. "We could stay a little longer."
"It's time to go," Kakashi chided softly, shaking his head. "It'll be dark by the time we get back to Konoha."
"Fine," he acquiesced. "But we should do this again." Obito stretched back against Shugon as the canine gave a great yawn. "You know, we could always go missing for another year. It's almost July. Send Kuro to sensei with a note that we're going on extended vacation." He waggled his eyebrows. "They'd never catch us."
Kakashi's laughter in the evening air was as warm and inviting as the last rays of the sun.