Something Precious

Chapter Thirty Three

"Why are we here?" demanded Kakashi dully.

"You two are going to fight each other. That is if your sensei is okay with it." Naruto looked at Minato with question, the jounin shrugged, allowing it. Naruto gave him a grateful smile before turning back to the chunin.

"How is that supposed to help anything? We do that all time in training." Obito asked. Naruto shook his head.

"No, you spar in training. I want you to fight. I want you to go at each other with everything you've got, no holding back. While you are doing that, I want to think of all the things that you dislike about the other and use that emotion as a fuel, then I want to think of why it bothers you so much." he instructed them. Obito grinned somewhat maliciously.

"Good, this should be fun." Naruto suppressed a shudder as he thought of all the boy could be capable of in the future. He remembered the Uchiha's gleaming blade as it ran Kakashi through, staining it with his blood. He remembered the smirk he gave Naruto once he noticed him watching and compared it to the grin he now wore, he felt deeply unsettled but hoped it didn't show.

"Ok. . . start." he said before going and resting against the tree, he struggled to shove the memories to the side before they consumed him and he had another panic attack.

His thoughts were effectively dragged away by a figure settling next to him, together he and his father watched the chunin with interest.

Kakashi's form was more relaxed than Obito's who appeared more riled, so it was no surprise when the Uchiha made the first move. He ran in with hands quickly flicking through the seals of a fire jutsu. He held his hand to his lips and blew out a massive fire ball. Kakashi flipped out of the way in time. This continued for a while. Despite Kakashi being labeled a genius Naruto could see he struggled, if only a little, against the Uchiha.

"Wow. Look at him, Kakashi is amazing." came an awed voice. Naruto looked beside him and saw Rin had sat down there, her eyes following the movements of the young shinobi eagerly. His eyes drifted back to battling pair and he looked upon them with the eyes of a seasoned shinobi. He noted all their flaws and perfections. He noticed all the things they needed to work at.

"In a way I suppose he is." Rin furrowed her brow while not looking away for a second. "Kakashi is too arrogant, he has a lot of potential but lacks the wisdom necessary to reach it." he elaborated. Minato 'hmmed' in agreement.

"And what do you think of Obito?" the jounin asked. He was curious as to Naruto's thoughts on his students.

"Well, he needs to pay more attention to the things around him. I believe he could be very powerful one day if he sets his mind to it, and stops this childish thing he has going in with Kakashi."

"Really? You think Obito could be that powerful?" Rin inquired in surprise, though Naruto wasn't sure why, even without having known the Uchiha's strength in his timeline Naruto wouldn't have a hard time coming to this conclusion. There was just something about Obito Uchiha.

"Yeah, in fact I think that once he awakens his sharingan he could be just as good as Kakashi strength wise." even Minato rose a brow at his thoughts. Obito had clear potential of course, but to be a match for Kakashi. . . personally Minato had always thought that, but others were only too quick to dismiss Obito, to snub and put him down as a failure of an Uchiha. But what they failed to see was the boys rock hard determination, they never saw his kindness and if they did they labeled it a weakness.

"Huh, I never thought of that." Rin commented with shame. "You're right though, Obito will become Hokage one day after all!" she grinned and the two blondes both offered a smile in return.

She did a double take at the pair. As they smiled at her like that it was difficult to find any difference between the two. Save for the strange 'birthmarks' on Naruto's cheeks they were identical.

"Are you sure you guys aren't related." Rin joked after a moment. Naruto chuckled a little before looking back to the fight,

Minato took a little longer. He examined Naruto closely. The colour of his eyes and hair, his nose even, they looked copy and pasted from his own face. The shape of his eyes though, and his jaw and lips, they looked just like. . . . just like. . . Kushina. How is that even possible?

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Obito ran at his teammate again.

'I want you think about all the things you dislike about the other.'

Obito recalled all the arguments he had with the other and what had led to them. He disliked how easy things came to the silver-haired pain-in-the-ass. He disliked how Rin fawned over him while remaining completely oblivious to Obito's feelings. He disliked how Kakashi always felt the need to point out the brunette's mistakes.

But Obito hated Kakashi's arrogance. He hated how inconsiderate he was. Most of all, Obito hated how Kakashi never gave a damn about the well being of his comrades, always going by the rules.

'Use that emotion as fuel.'

As Obito was about to deliver a head on kick he threw his weight to the other side and finally went through the Hatake's defense. Kakashi grunted in pain and surprise, he really hadn't expected that.

The Uchiha was quick to dart out of his reach before he could retaliate. Sneaking a quick glance to other three watching from the sidelines, Obito smiled when he saw Rin's encouraging wave and accompanying smile. He grinned back at her and just before he could raise his hand to wave back a powerful hit was delivered to his right side bringing his focus back to his opponent. He quickly caught the oncoming fist and using a move Naruto had recently taught him, he tried to bring Kakashi forward by yanking his arm and kicking the back of his leg at the same time. It seemed to work at first but then the Hatake used a replacement jutsu leaving him to look around like an idiot and wonder where he had gone.

He didn't wonder long before a hand reached up from the earth and pulled him in. Darn it. While he had been busy searching the trees around him and sky above him, he never thought the consider the ground beneath him. Before he could be completely imprisoned by the earth Obito used the same replacement jutsu and carefully observed Kakashi from the trees.

Naruto sighed as he watched them. They weren't doing as he asked, they weren't fighting all out and they weren't using their emotions, well Kakashi wasn't, Obito was but it seemed he was sorely lacking the balance necessary to use your emotions in a battle without losing rationality, he looked like a clumsy puppy against Kakashi who remained cold, emotionless but graceful. The silver-haired chuunin was almost playing with the Uchiha, as if he thought the brunette wasn't worth his full efforts.

Kakashi was still too proud and Obito was still too impulsive. Naruto wasn't exactly surprised by this per se - people don't change in a week - but he was disappointed.

"Sooo. . . how is this supposed to help?" Minato spoke after a while of them just sitting there and watching.

Naruto slumped further against the tree. "They are supposed to work out their negative feelings while they fight." he explained.

Minato nodded thoughtfully. "Hmm, that's a good idea but it won't work. Kakashi has never exactly seen Obito as an equal." he said sadly.

"Yeah, I knew that from the beginning, but I didn't know it was this bad. He's hardly even trying." the blonde groaned.

Their conversation was cut short by a rustling in the bushes. Five figures broke through to the clearing. "Well, well, what do we have here?" said A.