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When the throbbing in his head finally ebbed away, his eyes roved over the surrounding area. He couldn’t really discern one thing from another, not with the fog still hovering over his brain. It didn’t help that he was laying sideways either.
Sitting up, he felt a sort of disconnect. After a moment he began to understand why.
He had no idea who he was.
Glancing around again, he hoped that the environment would give something away. But all he saw were trees. The red and orange hues of the setting sun on the horizon brought no comfort.
Awkwardly, he stood up and realized that his body felt uneven. Not only that but the world around him was only visible through one eye. A mask covered the rest of his face and obscured his vision from the rest of his surroundings.
Large hands wrapped in black gloves reached over and unclipped the mask from his face. Strangely enough, even with the mask gone, his left eye revealed nothing. He blinked. Still nothing.
Upon inspecting the mask in his hands, he found it to be pretty ugly. He quite liked the orange color (and there was something. He apparently liked orange), but the swirls that decorated it were hideous.
And his outfit.
A hand reached down and picked at the fabric of the black cloak with red clouds. True, it had a cool mysterious factor to it, but for some reason he didn’t actually like it on himself.
But if he didn’t like it then why was he wearing it?
And why did it smell so bad? He needed to wash it. Did he have a washing machine?
… So for some reason he knew what a washing machine was …
What other nuggets of common knowledge did he remember?
As he contemplated birth, death, nature, and humanity, the man found himself trudging through the grass aimlessly.
After walking around for a while, he found a quaint river. It wasn’t until he stood over the small currents of water that he realized he could see his own reflection. Throwing the mask to the ground, the man leaned in, knees digging into the dirt below and hands grasping at the division between land and water.
He was ugly. Just like the mask.
Its folds were indented upon the right side of his face, the scars unattractive and boorish. No wonder he covered his face.
He was missing an eye too, which made sense. He hadn’t been expecting any less. Slipping out of the cloak, the shirt and pants underneath, and even the small pouches that littered his body, he peaked down at himself and stared.
His face wasn’t the only thing disfigured. Pasty white trailed down to his hip bone on his right side. No wonder he had felt disconnected. His body wasn’t even fully his own. Something had happened to him. Something terrible.
After what felt like an eternity gazing down at his mutilated figure, he finally dipped into the cool water and engulfed himself in its depths.
Minutes later he stepped out, still uncertain about his predicament but just a little relieved that certain parts of his body were still intact.
He let the cool night air dry him before snuggling back into his cloak and lounging under a tree. For some reason, despite not doing anything at all that he could remember, he felt tired. Sluggishly he dipped further back into the tree until his whole world turned dark.
When he opened his eye again, the sun was encroaching towards its peak in the sky. He must have slept pretty well last night, for he no longer felt as fatigued. He gripped his mask and sighed. Today he had to get some answers.
He yawned, he stretched, and then he finally went on his way. In the distance he spotted a mountain range and decided to make his way towards it. Maybe it would lead somewhere. A few minutes later, an angry boar (ah, so he recognized some animals it seemed), sprouted from the underbrush and charged at him.
Miraculously, he jumped almost effortlessly onto a branch, high within the trees. He really shouldn’t have been so surprised. It was typical of a shinobi.
Shinobi …
That’s what he was, wasn’t it? Shinobi were agile and quick. They could mold chakra and utilize jutsu. Yes. Right. They also killed people. Bad people and good people. Shinobi were hailed as heroes, too, sometimes, despite the blood that they would shed. What a contradiction they seemed to be. And apparently, he was one of them …
Jumping from one branch to another, he opted to stay within the shelter of the trees. As he did this, he decided to finally peek into those pouches under the cloak as well. Out came a couple of kunai—of course—and a pouch. A pouch full of money apparently. Hmm … not bad.
Eventually, he reached what he supposed was the edge of the woods. A barbed wire fence sat just a couple of trees away from him. Past the tall barrier seemed to be civilization. Maybe … maybe if he kept going, he could get some answers? At least, that’s what he hoped. But for some reason, his body hesitated.
Something in his subconscious didn’t want to step foot inside this village. Village . This was a village . Uncertain what to do next, he stood there, silently contemplating his options.
It was then that the forest ambiance faded into the background and a new sound emerged. It was crying. Someone was crying. Someone was close by.
As if relieved to turn away, his feet carried him back into the forest to find the sound he had clearly missed earlier.
A little boy sat against a tree stump. Tears streamed down his face despite small hands trying so very hard to push them back into his eyes. The man could understand the sentiment.
Me too, kid. Me too.
Upon closer inspection, he took note of the boy’s white shirt and black shorts, and even stranger the sharp lines adorning each side of his cheeks. Of course, he had no right to judge anyone’s appearance. Not with the way he looked.
Then his thoughts began to churn.
Why was this kid alone? Where were his parents? Why was he crying?
It was then that he spotted the patch of red splashed across his right leg, between his knee and ankle.
Impulsively, the man landed in front of the crying child. He didn’t understand how he had gotten from the branch to the ground so quickly, but he chalked it up to a ninja trick. Because he was a ninja. Right.
The kid’s breath hitched when he finally spotted the man standing before him. Blue eyes and blonde spikey hair greeted him and a wave of something washed over him. He didn’t know this child … probably. But for some reason this child’s appearance meant something to him.
“W-Who are you?!” The kid sniffed in fear.
The man didn’t know whether to keep his mask on, or to show his face. Wouldn’t the kid get even more scared by how ugly he was?
“I’m trying to figure that out,” the man replied, unhelpfully.
The kid’s fear ebbed a bit as confusion took over. He squinted his sky-blue eyes at him and frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean, dattebayo?!”
The man shrugged and crouched down to the kid’s level. “I don’t remember who I am.”
“How come?! Didn’t your parents name you?”
Parents … None came to mind. “I’m sure they did. But I don’t know.”
The kid seemed to be growing impatient now. “How can you not know?!”
“I just don’t! Do you remember your parents naming you?!” The man couldn’t believe that he was getting into a heated debate with a child . Was this the kind of person he was?
In response, the child went quiet, and he squinted his eyes as though forcing another wave of tears back in.
Ah shit. He probably didn’t have any parents. “Sorry, kid. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
The kid sniffed. “Naruto! The name’s Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!”
A pause. “It’s nice to meet you, Naruto.”
“What’s your name?”
“I don’t remember. We went over this, kid.”
“ Naruto .”
“Naruto.”
“If you can’t remember it, then you should make up a name! Something cool!”
The man huffed out a laugh. Something about this felt nostalgic. A fake name, anyway. One popped into his head quicker than he had time to contemplate. “Then call me Tobi.”
“Eh? Tobi?” the kid frowned. “Well, alright … if that’s the one you want.”
Tobi shrugged again. It wasn’t that he wanted it. No, somewhere deep down it felt like he needed it.
A moment of silence passed between the two of them, before Tobi’s gaze once again landed on the dried blood caked onto the boy’s leg. “So, uh, why were you crying, anyway?”
“I wasn’t!”
“You weren’t?”
“I wasn’t crying!”
Tobi rolled his eyes. “I literally found you because I followed the sound of your sobbing. What happened? Are you gonna be okay?”
It felt weird asking these questions, but … at the same time, Tobi felt like it was the most rational thing to say.
Naruto stared warily at Tobi for a moment and closed in on himself. “I don’t wanna talk about it …”
“But you’re injured.”
“I don’t wanna talk about it, dattebayo!”
Tobi sighed. “Fine. Fine. I don’t know why I bothered in the first place …” Caring is impractical anyway, a part of his soul murmured. Was it the shinobi version of him? The one filled with apathy, blood, and murderous intent? Tobi didn’t understand himself well enough to start making assumptions.
“I …” Naruto hesitated, unfurling slightly from his bunched-up position. “I’ll tell you if you let me see your face.”
Tobi froze. “My face?”
“Yeah! I mean your mask is kinda tacky. But I do appreciate the orange. Orange is such a cool color!” Naruto cackled. “I wanna see your face though!”
And honestly, Tobi couldn’t think of a reason why he shouldn’t reveal himself. Naruto was asking for it, so he’d have to face the consequences himself if he thought Tobi’s face was ugly. It was okay. It was okay .
But as he pried the mask up, his soul screamed out at him. This guttural protest from within told him that revealing himself was not something he should have done. It wasn’t something he had ever done, probably.
Oh well. The damage was already done. Naruto blinked at his disfigured face in awe. “Whoa … what happened?”
Something warm filled Tobi’s chest, knowing that Naruto wasn’t cowering away from him and gazing upon him in disgust. “Not sure. Still trying to figure that out. But I think something happened while I was out being a shinobi.”
Naruto’s eyes seemed to glitter in excitement. “You’re a shinobi?!”
“Apparently.”
“Cool~!” Naruto jumped to his feet in excitement. “I’m training to be shinobi too! I go to the academy and they’re teaching us all kinds of things about becoming stronger. And in a few more years I’ll be able to graduate, dattebayo!”
Tobi soaked in the familiar information with ease. Of course ninja went to an academy to become shinobi. That’s probably what Tobi did too. If only he could remember …
“I was trying to graduate early, but I keep failing for some reason! Which sucks a lot, dattebayo! Especially since I was hoping to become a genin before my seventh birthday. Because, ne, ne, Tobi! I’m turning seven in a few weeks!” After he said this, however, the light in Naruto’s eyes began to flicker.
The boy immediately clamped up, little fists clenching as his eyes trailed down to the ground below.
“The … the villagers get even worse the closer it gets to my birthday,” he admitted quietly.
The thing was, Tobi was having trouble figuring out who he was, his past, how he got here, and what his plans were. His mind was a confusing web of uncertainties and dark tunnels with no foreseeable exits, so of course he was struggling to get to the bottom of it.
But this? No, this Tobi could easily put together.
“Did they do that to you?” he found himself growling, pointing harshly at the red adorning the boy’s leg.
Naruto sniffed and refused to meet his gaze. “It was just … It was just a bit of glass,” he answered even quieter than before. “The old guy didn’t even aim, right.”
“Fuck. He was aiming at you? With what?”
“I-I don’t- glass, I guess! I don’t know dattebayo!” Naruto cried out. “He was drinking from it! They always throw those bottles at me!”
“Fucking hell!”
“You swear a lot!” Naruto shot back frantically, tears finally breaking past his lower eyelids.
Tobi growled again. “Of course I do! This is something you’re supposed to swear a lot at!” At least I think …
“But, Jiji always gets angry when I swear!”
“That’s because you’re a kid!” Tobi felt himself physically jolt as his mind came back to him. What the hell was he doing venting at a little kid? It wasn’t Naruto’s fault that villagers were abusing him! Trying to calm himself, Tobi took a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m sorry for yelling. I’m just angry.”
“A-At me?!” Naruto gasped, stepping back against the tree stump.
“No! No! At those assholes who hurt you!” Tobi tried to explain. “Naruto, good people don’t hurt others. Especially not kids. To hurt a kid like that … well, it’s despicable.”
“How do you know that?! You don’t even know your own name!” Naruto shot back, irritably.
Tobi paused. How the hell did he even explain this? Kid, I’m just listening to my feelings and my feelings tell me hurting innocent people is something bad people do? Sure, the explanation wasn’t earning him any awards, but it was probably enough to win in an argument against a six-year-old.
“I know because … because humans have a thing called a conscience and,” even though it seems to fail shinobi (and apparently average citizens too), “the conscience tells people what’s good and what’s bad. For example, do you want to hit me?”
Naruto’s nose scrunched up in confusion.
“Right now. Do you think it’s okay to hit me?” Tobi pressed.
“… No, not really. I mean, you kinda look stupid, but I’d feel real bad if I hit you.”
“Thanks Naruto. Really.”
“You’re welcome, dattebayo!” Tobi’s sarcasm floated over the poor boy’s head.
“Anyway,” Tobi continued. “That feeling inside you that makes you feel bad at the thought of hitting me, that’s your conscience. Humans are supposed to use it to tell right from wrong.”
Naruto nodded along quietly before frowning. “If that’s true, then why do those villagers-”
“They’re consciences don’t work, obviously,” Tobi tried to explain. “If they did, those stupid villagers wouldn’t have tried to hurt you.”
Hesitantly, the man lifted his hand and nestled it in the blonde’s spiky hair.
“It’s not your fault that something inside them is wonky. In fact, if I were you, I’d pity them,” Tobi rasped out heatedly. “They’re sad and empty people. Living life without a conscience is-”
Suddenly, his body seized up, the words crawling back down his throat with a vengeance. What he had been about to say … somehow, it felt wrong. Not understanding why, Tobi tried to finish his sentence, but the words wouldn’t come out. Why couldn’t he …
“Tobi?” Naruto glanced up in confusion.
The older man’s mouth worked itself up and down until he finally found his voice again. “Nothing. It’s nothing. Just … none of this is your fault. You understand?”
The blonde hesitated, teeth tugging at his tiny lips nervously.
“Naruto.”
“I understand,” the blonde gasped out, wiping at his eyes again. Tobi pat his head one more time before rising to his full height. He allowed the kid a few minutes to collect himself, but eventually Naruto’s sniffles had died down.
When Tobi glanced back down, the boy looked up at him in wonder. The expression was adorable.
“Hey, Tobi-san!”
-san?
“You’re actually really cool, dattebayo!”
Tobi grinned cheekily in response. “Oh really?”
“D-Don’t get all smirky!” Naruto shouted, pulling his arms over his chest to pout. “I-It’s just … You’re one of the first to …”
“What? Treat you like a human?” Tobi scoffed. “You deserve it, kid. You deserve to be treated better than however those villagers have been treating you.”
Naruto meekly nodded, glancing away for a moment to hide the red tint on his cheeks. Kami, this kid was endearing. Tobi didn’t understand what about this kid felt so familiar, but he was determined to latch onto that emotion. Anything that led him to finding out more about himself.
As Tobi’s thoughts began to stray once more towards his amnesia, a weird spike of … chakra (that was chakra) alerted him of someone approaching.
No, not just someone. Multiple someones.
“Naruto, get behind me,” he ordered, face hardening.
“Wha?” Naruto’s breath hitched as five people in masks flitted into existence before them. This too seemed familiar. Tobi knew these people, or at least he knew what they represented. They were shadow and darkness. Blink and they’d take your family, your livelihood, and then your life.
Suddenly, someone without a mask stepped forward into existence. This person wore a green vest, as well as a dark shirt and pants. A scarf of the same color was tied around his head, and the metal piece on top of it glimmered in the sunlight.
Tobi’s whole body shook at the symbol engraved in the metal’s center. Fuck. Konoha. This was Konoha. That was the symbol for Konoha. Fuck why did it suddenly make him want to throw up?
Trying to compose himself, Tobi took a step to the left, hiding Naruto from view even more.
“We don’t want too much trouble,” the man in green suddenly spoke, senbon stuck between his teeth. “You just have something of ours and we really want it back.”
Tobi’s blood boiled. “I think you mean some one . And he really doesn’t belong to you.”
Instantly, the people in masks lifted their arms, kunai and tantos raised in front of them, ready to attack at any moment. The idea of a fight made Tobi nervous. So far everything he’d felt or thought seemed to be instinct. He could probably dodge, but what jutsu could he use? Did he have anything that he was specifically good at? Fuck, he was not ready for a confrontation.
Fortunately, the man standing in the front hadn’t given the order to attack yet. Instead, his gaze was leveled heavily on Tobi, eyebrows furrowed in deep thought.
Shit, did Tobi have time to reach for his own kunai? Probably not. What he really needed to do was escape. But could he really outrun anbu?
Anbu .
Right. They were Konoha’s Anbu. Haha, how silly of him. You couldn’t outrun anbu .
But no, Tobi didn’t actually need to outrun them. He had something else up his sleeve. Right? Yes. He always used this to get away. It’s how he’s been able to evade capture for so long (and holy fuck, why in the world did he need to evade capture ??? Was he a criminal ???).
Tobi’s mind was jumbled but his body seemed to move on autopilot. It was then that his right eye seemed to burn. But it was of no consequence. In fact, it felt right, as though the occurrence were normal.
A loud gasp fell from the green-vested shinobi’s lips and Tobi’s eye zeroed in on him.
“No. Fucking. Way,” the other man muttered, but Tobi didn’t take any more time to dwell on it.
He grabbed hold of Naruto and pushed into that feeling, that burning sensation that was finally easing.
Kamui .
And with that thought, the two of them were swirling away, their bodies folding out of that reality and into another.
Before Tobi knew it, they were stuck on a large white cube. He couldn’t see the bottom of it, but Tobi looked around at the rest of the infinite void of darkness and saw even more of these cubes in the distance. No longer were they surrounded by forestry and sinister anbu. And honestly, despite their confusing surroundings, Tobi considered this to be an upgrade.
Sure, he didn’t know where they had ended up. But at his core, Tobi understood that he was safe.
On a neighboring cube in the distance, he caught sight of a little hut. And next to that, was another cube with piles of different items sitting upon it. Tobi honestly couldn’t make any of it out from where he and his little companion stood. But something about it all was familiar. That hut, those objects stacked miscellaneously on top of each other, they were his. They were all his . This dimension was his too. He could feel it. It was his home.
This revelation brought a relieved smile to his face.
Yes. His first instinct was right.
He and Naruto were finally safe.