I Will Become the Wind

CHAPTER 33 | Good Intentions

After Obito had met with Naruto outside the Sound village, he spent most of his time training daily with Fugaku. There wasn't much else to do.

Minato still hadn't come back yet. Fugaku was convinced that he'd found something worth pursuing, but the Sandaime was being opaque about what that might be. In the meantime, Team Minato was not given any more missions.

Once, Obito risked going back to Naruto's timeline again. He couldn't sleep, and he had half a thought: if, maybe, this stalemate continued... maybe the sheer weight of boredom would be enough to make meeting his older self an appealing option. Maybe facing it together would make it less horrible.

But when Obito got there, he couldn't make himself say the words. Naruto and Jiraiya had made camp somewhere, and everything was dark and still. Jiraiya was laying on his side with his back to the camp, facing out over a big view of the sky and forest below. Naruto was sitting against a tree with a book held loosely in his hand, like he'd fallen asleep reading. He was leaning haphazardly to one side, snoring lightly.

In the end, Obito didn't say anything.

I'll come back tomorrow, he decided. He should talk to Kushina first—maybe she knew when Minato was supposed to come back. Until he knew, Obito couldn't promise anything. And it would be dumb to wake them up in the middle of the night just to say hello.

A soft breeze made the trees whisper. Nothing else changed, but Obito suddenly got the impression that Jiraiya was awake. Maybe the Sannin was lying too still, or maybe it was the way his head was angled slightly in Obito's direction, as if listening.

Tomorrow, Obito told himself again. After the team meeting and after training. By then he might know something. He backed away from them and disappeared.

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Kushina had been completely serious about throwing Obito a congratulations party, and about making Kakashi attend it.

It was under the guise of a team meeting at Minato and Kushina's house. And Kakashi showed up, because for all his scowling and complaining, he wanted an update about Minato as much as anyone else. And even he didn't dare to ignore Kushina's invitation.

"I was furious," Kushina announced from the entrance to the kitchen, holding a chef's knife like she might retroactively stab someone. "Most teams get guaranteed time off after a mission like that! But when he got back, Minato told me all of you had to stay on call. Then they immediately sent him back into enemy territory... he barely had time to say goodbye to me!"

"Do you know why?" Rin asked, leaning forward in her chair.

"Sandaime-sama is pushing too hard," Kushina continued, twirling the knife in her hand. "I mean, sure, we've gained some momentum after Iwa surrendered. And everyone wants this to end quickly. But we can't count on Kiri being so scared of Minato that they'll let him just waltz in."

"But why did he have to go by himself?" Obito said. "We're a team. What was the point of us coming back here just to sit around?"

"He had to drop off all the excess baggage," Kakashi said.

"You know that includes you, right?" Obito shot back immediately.

Kushina frowned and stopped her knife-twirling. "That's something you might have to get used to. You won't stop having missions together, but you'll be split up more often with three jounin on the team."

"He's only a tokubetsu jounin." Kakashi gestured at Obito with his thumb.

"Since when have you ever cared? You're only saying that because it's me."