Reaching Immortality (book two)

Chapter 30. Obito's new friends

"This is lame, hm." Deidara muttered under his breath as he carefully made a flower crown out of daisies.

Obito was just far enough away that he didn't hear it, but he looked towards him anyway since he'd seen Deidara's lips moving from the corner of his eyes.

Deidara clammed up, hoping to hell he wasn't heard. It would suck to go through all this only to find out he couldn't see under Tobi's damn mask by the end of it!

The three were six weeks into their mission (vacation) and had gone through all the tourist activities. They'd hiked the cliff paths, they dug up thousands of shellfish, they swam in the ocean, did some wake boarding, ate all the different foods available, rode horses, assassinated some bullies, went fishing, deep sea diving, and had Itachi's home cooked meals in all of the parks for picnics.

Obito didn't forget to keep giving scrolls of food to Severus-chan and Minato every day either. One day he'd give them a bunch of frozen fish, another day he'd give them candies, and so on and so forth. He wanted to make sure he was giving them a variety of different things. He even gave a bunch of things at once too, like that one time he gave them hundreds of packages of instant noodles, and hundreds of jars of pickles.

Sure he was being petty by not following Severus-chan's nutrition guide for food, but it wasn't his fault Severus had hidden the fact that he could bring people back to life. Maybe if Obito had Rin by his side, she'd have been inclined to help him obtain better meals for his prisoners.

Which is what he'd been calling them in his mind after two months of looking after them. It boosted his ego a bit, even if the two of them could escape as easily as breathing.

Obito squinted at his moody teenagers as they made their flower crowns with varying amounts of enthusiasm. Deidara looked bored out of his mind, while Itachi seemed almost at peace with the mindless task.

Both had come up with their own conclusions about the mission already, but neither had voiced their opinions about it. They were determined to continue this 'mission' for the chance at a glimpse of Obito's face.

Two more weeks to go.

"Alright! Tobi finished his crown!" Obito exclaimed as he lifted the mess of a daisy crown onto his spiky head.

Deidara looked up from his own messy crown before sighing and putting it on his head too. Itachi's crown was of course, impeccable.

He looked absolutely dashing with his crown of daisies.

"Wow Deidara-san you really suck at this!" Obito laughed as he bounced over and squatted in front of the boy to attempt to fix the crown. Deidara pouted, but didn't refuse the help.

He'd learned from the first ten times what it meant to refuse Tobi when he wanted to help. (Incessant whining, keening and threatening to break eardrums)

Even Itachi had stopped slapping away Obito's touchy hands. (Though sometimes he found himself planning murder when Obito took it upon himself to help wash his back in the baths.)

Once Obito did his best to make Deidara's crown prettier, he turned to Itachi and grinned happily behind his mask. "Your crown is so pretty Itachi-san! You look like an innocent angel!"

Itachi crushed a daisy in his hand at the perceived insult. His face dangerously blank as he cut Obito open with his sharingan. Figuratively. His mangekyo had no power over Obito's, and he knew it.

"Just two more weeks hm?" Deidara hummed as he stood and wiped dirt off his pants with the back of his hands.

Obito was extremely put out by that comment. He knew they weren't really enjoying themselves at all with him, and it really made him feel like crap. He was already feeling guilty from ruining their lives, he just wanted to give them some time to be happy.