Chapter 280: Kakashi's Shock
Might Guy had been heading to find Kakashi for a joint training session when the commotion reached them — a series of sounds that carried unmistakably the quality of a serious fight. Both of them had run toward it immediately, as Konoha shinobi were trained to do.
What they found when they arrived was not what either of them had expected.
Kakashi stopped in his tracks and stared. First at Ryū, standing there with the general air of someone who had recently wrapped up a minor errand. Then down at the shape on the ground — a heap of a person in a state that could generously be called "in need of urgent medical attention." The condition was bad enough that looking at it too long became uncomfortable.
Still breathing, though, by the look of it.
Kakashi's first thought, arriving with associated cold sweat: this person had done something to irritate Ryū. He knew what Ryū was capable of, at least in broad strokes. The Konoha leadership's position was firmly in the category of "keep relations positive and avoid any conflict." Someone who had created a negative impression — well. This was what that apparently looked like.
While Kakashi was still processing the scene, Guy's voice came from beside him.
"Ryū-sensei! What brings you here?"
Kakashi's mouth twitched. He turned to give Guy a look. "Can you not read the situation? Obviously the person on the ground did something to displease Ryū-kun. This is the result."
"Don't call me a dimwit, you smug Kakashi, I'm not a dimwit at all—"
"Be quiet, dimwit."
Kakashi didn't have the patience for this particular exchange right now. His attention went back to the figure on the ground. He couldn't see the face — wrong angle — so he had no idea who it was or whether they were even from Konoha. Whatever the specific conflict had been, the details were opaque.
What wasn't opaque was the bottom line: whoever started it, Ryū was the correct party.
Anyone who wanted to argue that point was welcome to do so. Kakashi had no plans to join them. He intended to keep living.
He was still sorting through his next question when Ryū tossed something toward him.
Reflexive catch. Something small, slightly moist.
He opened his hand and looked at it.
His pupil contracted.
"That's — this is a Sharingan. An actual Uchiha Sharingan." He looked from the eye to the figure on the ground. "The person down there — they're Uchiha?"
The Uchiha clan was one of the more reliably complicated elements of life in Konoha. The majority of its members carried a particular combination of pride and grievance that made most interactions with outsiders into negotiation exercises. The few who managed anything approaching interpersonal humility were genuinely rare — rarer than most protected species.
If Ryū had put an Uchiha clan member in this condition, the ramifications would extend in unpleasant directions. The Konoha leadership would stay well clear of Ryū's business — that was already established — but the Uchiha as a clan were famously capable of making poor decisions in response to strong emotions. If one of them decided to create an incident about this, the collateral damage to the village could be considerable.
Then Ryū's voice cut through his calculations.
"Uchiha clan, yes. Someone who's on the record as dead, though in practice he's been alive this whole time. Keep the eye — it's not any use to me." He glanced at the figure on the ground. "That one's your problem now. Wipe off the makeup and you'll figure out who he is. Word of caution — he's been pretty thoroughly manipulated by someone, so the personality's running hot. I've used up more of the afternoon than I intended. I'm heading back."
And he left.
No one tried to stop him. Kakashi, ranking ANBU jōnin or not, did not plant himself in Ryū's path to request he stay. That was simply not a thing he was prepared to do.
He stood there for a moment after Ryū's figure receded, turning the words over.
On the record as dead. Alive this whole time. Someone who's been manipulated.
He crouched next to the unconscious figure and turned the head toward him.
A face he didn't recognize — or rather, a face under something. He rubbed at the makeup with his hand, and it came away.
What was underneath it stopped him cold.
Guy went equally still beside him.
The confusion on both their faces — visible, undisguised — was transforming. Disbelief layered over shock layered over something that, for all the impossibility of the moment, registered faintly as relief.
Kakashi's was the most complex expression of the two. He was staring at a face he knew better than almost any other. Time had passed, but not so much that he could mistake it.
Guy's reaction confirmed it. They were looking at the same person. Neither of them had gotten it wrong.
Which meant the person who had been beaten half to death by Ryū was Kakashi's former teammate.
Uchiha Obito.
"It's definitely him. No question. He's — he's alive. This careless idiot — he's actually alive."
Kakashi moved without thinking further. He got his arms under Obito and began pulling him upright, turning to Guy at the same time.
"Kay — help me get him up. Carefully. Don't add more injuries on top of what's already there. We need to get him to the hospital. Medical-nin. Now."
Every question that should have been urgent — why was Obito alive, why had Obito been in conflict with Ryū, what had any of this been about — was simply gone from his mind in that moment.
None of it mattered yet.
Getting Obito to a hospital was the only thing that mattered.
Everything else could wait.
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