Naruto One Shots

Obito x Reader | Smile

Word count: 1,121

Requested by: usagi

*~*~*

"You're going to get ill doing that, you know," Obito frowned. He was leaning against the edge of the cave, staring out at me with a mixture of amusement and concern on his unmasked face. Rain was falling in sheets outside, and the temperature was quickly dropping, but I couldn't resist myself. I laughed, throwing my hands in the air and spinning around.

"Don't be such a buzzkill, Obito!" I shouted over the roar of the rain. "Tobi would be out here dancing with me!"

"Tobi is an alias, (F/n)," Obito rolled his eyes. "And I don't want to hear you complaining when you get sick." And with that, he turned on his heel and disappeared into the cave.

* * *

I groaned, throwing the empty tissue box at the wall. "Obiiiitoooo."

That was the third box of tissues I had gone through that day, and I was only getting worse by the minute. Who knew that those myths about getting sick from the rain and cold held some truth to them?

Obito sighed from the other side of the room. "What did I tell you about complaining?" He gave me a stern look, annoyed with my constant interruptions. I ignored this look for the millionth time and sniffled a bit, sticking out my lower lip.

"But I don't feel good," I whimpered, burrowing deeper into my tiny fort of pillows and blankets.

"Perhaps you'll listen to me next time then," he said indifferently, turning back towards his paperwork. I opened my mouth to retort, but instead of the sarcastic comment that I had prepared for him, I hacked out a series of loud, wet coughs. My head throbbed with each one, and when I had finished I groaned in misery.

"Okay, you were right 'bito," I said quietly, my throat raw from my frequent coughing spells. I closed my eyes against the building migraine and leaned back onto the mattress. "I should have listened to you, and I'm sorry."

At this, I heard the squeak of the chair being pushed back from the desk before the mattress sunk down beside me a moment later. A cool hand pressed against my sweltering forehead.

Obito sighed. "You really are quite sick, aren't you?"

My lower lip jutted out further and I nodded my head pathetically, keeping my eyes closed tight. Obito chuckled. "It is rather cute seeing you pout like that." He spoke to me in a gentle tone that he used very rarely, and only ever when we were alone.

Despite his cool, calculated exterior, there were instances in which an old flame in him would spark around me, revealing the old Obito that I had fallen in love with back at the academy. Before our worlds collided and fell apart. Before I had believed he had died, and had lost him forever.

Before he had loved someone else.

"I'm so glad that my suffering amuses you," I said bitterly, pulling myself away from those thoughts. I peeked one, (e/c) colored eye open to glance up at him, and instantly melted from the soft look of adoration on his face.

By some unlikely twist in fate, we had found each other once again, years later, after I had defected from Konoha to pursue something far greater than myself. A common goal that I had unknowingly shared with the masked Uchiha.

At the age of seventeen, I was recruited into the Akatsuki at the insistence of the hyperactive man-child that I had come to know as Tobi. And it was nearly a year after I had joined that Tobi's true identity was finally revealed to me.

He had cornered me in my room one evening, after I had returned from a particularly long mission, and I distinctly remembered how his immediate shift in personality had frightened me.

But when he removed his mask, and the pieces suddenly fell into place, I was overcome with an intense wave of euphoria. I honestly think that I shocked him more than he shocked me in that moment, because once I realized who he was, I threw my arms around him with a cry of joy.

* * *

I was brought back to the present by a gentle kiss on my forehead. I blinked my eyes and stared up at Obito, who's face had pulled down into the tiniest hint of a frown.

"You seem preoccupied with something," he pointed out, using the tip of his thumb to smooth out my creased brow. I relaxed my face and smiled at him softly.

"I was only thinking about the night I found out who you really were," I admitted, my smile growing at the memory. A ghost of a grin appeared on Obito's face as he heard this.

"Ah, yes," he murmured. "If I recall correctly, you nearly gave me a concussion when you tackled me."

I laughed, wincing as it turned into another fit of coughing. "If it makes you feel any better, I think I'm getting payback for that now," I grumbled, wishing desperately that I had listened to him when he advised me not play in the rain.

Obito smoothed out the hair from my face and smirked.

"As cute as you are like this, I much prefer you when you are well and healthy," his voice was soft as he leaned down. "You complain a lot less," he whispered in my ear.

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks for your concern."

He chuckled again, and just the mere sound of his laughter was enough to ease my misery from this stupid, godforsaken cold.

I could still remember the very first time that he had truly laughed in front of me, as Obito, rather than Tobi. I remembered the way his face, in that brief moment of laughter, had lit up so beautifully that the air from my lungs had escaped.

I knew that I had loved him before, but watching him laugh and seeing him smile was like falling in love with him all over again. Because it was in these rare moments that I knew, underneath all the anger and hatred that he harbored, the true Obito still remained, waiting. It showed me that despite all he had been through, there was still a flicker of hope – that perhaps together, we could attain the peace that we both so desperately sought for this world.

And perhaps it was because I was in such a pathetic state that he allowed his normally hardened demeanor to soften. But if it gave me the opportunity to see this gentle, beautiful side of him, then I would dance in a thousand rain storms, and suffer through a million colds, just to see his smile.