Despite all of Obito's tough talk, once the assessment scores came out, his failing grades meant he could no longer put up a front when facing Kakashi's sarcastic taunts.
"There's no need to be so downcast. At least in terms of physical conditioning and practical combat, you only got such a low score because you had bad luck, Obito," Qiyun casually consoled.
His and Kakashi's names ranked back-to-back right at the very top, which came as no surprise.
"Yeah!" Obito, wearing his goggles, nodded vigorously as he secretly made up his mind to train and study hard.
"Anija, accompany me to the pet shop after school," Kakashi interjected.
"Ah, sure." Qiyun's attention was instantly captured. "Are we buying dog food for Pakkun and the others?"
"Yeah."
"Pakkun?" Obito shot him a puzzled look.
"The summoning animal Kakashi contracted with," Qiyun explained.
"A… a summoning animal?" Obito's eyes widened as he stared at Kakashi in disbelief. "You actually already have a summoning animal?!"
"Of course, there's nothing to make a fuss about." Kakashi looked indifferent on the surface, but the corners of his mouth, hidden beneath his mask, were secretly curling up to betray the pride in his heart.
"Damn it!" Obito clenched his fists in frustration. Every time he felt the gap between himself and this pair of brothers, his drive grew stronger by a notch.
"Qiyun has a summoning animal too, right?" he couldn't help asking.
"Huh? I don't." Qiyun gave an answer that was the exact opposite of what Obito had imagined.
"Eh?" Obito was very surprised.
Qiyun was stronger than Kakashi, so it didn't make sense for Kakashi to have a summoning animal while Qiyun didn't.
"Our family's summoning contract is with the ninja hound clan, which suits Kakashi quite well, but doesn't really fit me," Qiyun answered.
As the awakening progress of the Herrscher of the Void slowly crept upward, Qiyun felt his physical strength growing greater and greater. If this kept on, would he even still be human? Qiyun felt a mild sense of worry.
"So that's how it is. I knew Qiyun couldn't possibly be weaker than the idiot Kakashi," Obito realized with a sudden flash of understanding.
"Such a cheap attempt at sowing discord, you loser," Kakashi snorted coldly.
"What? I didn't mean anything like that!" Obito first retorted, then looked panic-stricken at Qiyun.
*Yeah, yeah, I know,* because you don't have the brains for it.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kakashi turn his head away in annoyance, and Qiyun felt like sighing again. How happy of a little boy he used to be, but now it felt like he was raising two sons—and the kind who were exceptionally skilled at fighting for affection.
Upon getting Qiyun's answer, Obito visibly breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Qiyun expectantly. "Can I come stay at your place today?"
Hearing Obito say this, Kakashi whipped his head around. "Don't push your luck, loser!"
The little silver-haired boy ground his teeth. Ever since Obito had shown his face around Sakumo, he had been getting more and more out of hand. At the drop of a hat, he wanted to sleep over at their place, and every single time he insisted on sharing a bed with Qiyun. Qiyun used to seek Kakashi out in the middle of the night at first, but eventually got stubbornly used to it.
This jerk clearly harbored evil intentions! Boiling the frog in warm water! He was trying to snatch his older brother away from him!
"How many times has this been this month?!" Kakashi said with dissatisfaction.
"There's nobody at my house anyway, and the Uchiha training ground is just full of people laughing at me, I'm not going back..." As he spoke, Obito's spirits drooped, his eye rims beginning to turn red as he hurriedly pulled down the goggles on top of his head to mask his emotions.
The Uchiha clan produced nothing but elites. Even though Obito was an orphan, he similarly bore the name of the Uchiha, yet he had become a total loser at the Academy. When had an Uchiha ever produced a loser? By now, Obito was looked down upon within his own clan. Aside from the elderly grandfathers and grandmothers he had helped in the past who would still stroke his head and comfort him, his peers and certain adults all looked at him with rejection and disdain, making Obito even less willing to return to the Uchiha Clan Compound.
After all, only an ice-cold home awaited him there.
The more he thought about it, the sadder Obito felt, and his nose began to sting again.
Qiyun shrugged at Kakashi.
Obito was terrible at hiding his feelings. The scrapes and bruises on his body had only been treated haphazardly, and he merely pulled up his collar in a clumsy attempt to keep them from noticing.
Total idiot. It was obvious he had been bullied.
The heat of Kakashi's anger having passed, he felt a twinge of sympathy. At his core, he was a kind kid, and Obito was joined at the hip with them. Though he wouldn't admit it out loud, human hearts were flesh and blood; after spending all this time together, they had formed a bit of an attachment, and Kakashi was naturally protective of his own.
"Fine, fine. You can come if you want," Kakashi said awkwardly, crossing his arms. "Father isn't around these few days anyway. But, you are not allowed to sleep with Anija."
Obito was baffled by Kakashi's last sentence. Qiyun wasn't a girl, so what was wrong with two boys sleeping in the same bed? Still, it was a minor detail; anyway, the only reason he slept with Qiyun was simply because he didn't want to sleep with Kakashi.
"I couldn't ask for anything better!"
Just like that, Obito once again made himself at home in the Hatake household.
Putting away the high-grade dog food in his hands, Obito very naturally took his slippers out from the shoe cabinet and changed into them. Having visited the Hatake residence far too many times, he had accumulated plenty of his own personal daily necessities there.
"Old man isn't around today, so we'll have to cook for ourselves," Qiyun said as he opened the refrigerator. The ingredients were quite well-stocked; Sakumo had made sure to replenish the food before leaving.
"Anija, don't you go into the kitchen," Kakashi resignedly put on an apron, his dark eyes fixing a sharp gaze on Obito. "As for you, get in there and help."
"Help, then!" Obito rolled up his sleeves. "Just watch me show you what I can do!"
At first, Kakashi had been a bit worried that Obito would be unreliable, but seeing how practiced he looked, he relaxed.
As it turned out, although Obito was clumsy when it came to ninja training, as an orphan living alone, his life skills were maxed out.
Obito didn't plan on making anything overly complicated. He cracked a few eggs, beat the liquid thoroughly, added plenty of white sugar and milk to his own taste, poured it into a warmed frying pan, and cooked it slowly over low heat. Once it turned golden, he rolled it to one side to hold its shape, poured in more egg liquid... repeating the process several times until it reached a certain thickness before plating it.
"Tada!" Obito placed the rolled omelet on the table and looked expectantly at Qiyun. "Have a taste."
"Alright."
This was Qiyun's first time tasting Obito's cooking. He picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a piece, and popped it into his mouth.
"How is it?" Obito unconsciously leaned in closer to Qiyun, closely observing the expression on his face.
The sweet flavor, paired with the soft and tender texture of the egg, brought a smile to Qiyun's face as he gave a thumbs-up. "Very good."
Obito, receiving Qiyun's affirmation, broke into a happy smile and said with smug pride, "Well of course! I can even make tempura. I'll make it for you next time."
"Haha, then I'll really look forward to it." As the one being fed, Qiyun curved his eyes in a smile.
"Oh? Thinking about next time already?" Kakashi said coolly, carrying out two dishes.
Having long since grown accustomed to managing the family kitchen, Kakashi was quick and familiar with his work: a dish of stir-fried spicy fish and deep-fried chicken drumsticks. Without meat dishes, he could never satisfy Qiyun. In return, however, he had also prepared a completely vegetarian stewed dish, hitting the mark of a balanced meat-and-vegetable diet. After setting out his favorite miso soup, dinner for the Hatake household tonight was completely ready.
"Itadakimasu!" Obito eagerly set his chopsticks to work.
"Kakashi's cooking is delicious, isn't it?" Seeing Obito's expression, Qiyun asked with a smile.
While diligently moving his chopsticks, Obito stubbornly retorted, "Hmph, it's just so-so! I can definitely cook better than him!"
Kakashi rolled his eyes. "What's there to compare? Instead of that, you should be seriously thinking about how to hone your own strength, loser."
The cold, ruthless little genius showed no mercy. "Unless you'd rather become a chef instead?"
"Kakashi! You bastard!" Obito bristled, slamming a hand onto the table as he glared angrily at him. "Who wants to become a cook?! I already told you I'm going to become Hokage!"
"A loser can never become Hokage."
*Thwack.*
The sound of chopsticks hitting the table rang out sharply. Qiyun smiled as he looked at the two of them starting to bicker all over again, radiating a murderous intent as he gently said, "You two, do you remember that we're at the dinner table?"
Model citizen number one, Kakashi, silently began picking up fish, pretending as if nothing had just happened.
Model citizen number two, Obito, picked up a chicken drumstick and silently began gnawing on it.
"That's more like it." Finally getting some peace and quiet for his ears, Qiyun was satisfied and withdrew his murderous aura.
These two kids were right at that age where everyone found them annoying, and their annoyance factor when brought together multiplied exponentially. Qiyun had no idea what they could possibly find to argue about day in and day out, bickering enough to give someone a headache.
"If anyone tries to start trouble in front of me again, I'll beat them up," the cold and ruthless Qiyun declared.
As for bullying the young, he no longer cared. *Cold expression.jpg*
"Really?" Naturally, there was someone foolishly looking forward to it.
"Idiot." Kakashi speechlessly turned his head away. The fight his brother spoke of was definitely not some friendly spar where they stopped at a certain point, but a genuine, painful beating—and that idiot Obito was actually stupid enough to walk right into it.
"Of course." Qiyun smiled and patted the "dog's" head.
Seduced by the striking beauty right before his eyes, Obito touched the back of his head and broke into a goofy grin.
Watching Obito eating right out of the palm of Qiyun's hand, Kakashi shook his head and thought with pity, *Ah, this guy is a lost cause.*
Believing his own IQ to be higher than Obito's, Kakashi stopped proactively provoking him. And Obito, who had started putting his all into catching up, no longer had the time to go picking fights. With both of them frowning daily over training and academic classes, the frequency of their arguments dropped drastically, which allowed everyone in the class to breathe a sigh of relief.
Even the same spectacle gets boring if you watch it every day, you know.
"Did Qiyun do something?" Rin asked curiously, picking up on the gossip.
"Mmhmm, I told them I'd beat up whoever started trouble." Qiyun arched an eyebrow.
"Eh, is that really how it was solved?" Rin smiled helplessly. "That's a method only Qiyun could pull off."
Qiyun glanced at the open book spread out on Rin's desk. The diagrams and text printed on it were all about internal human anatomy, clearly showing it to be a medical book.
"Is Rin planning to go down the path of a medical ninja?"
"Yes." Rin tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, a steady, resolute light shining in the young girl's eyes. "After getting to know you and Kakashi, I realized just how many shortcomings I have compared to the two of you."
The more she studied, the more Rin understood that she was just an ordinary person, while some people were the darlings of the heavens.
Hearing this, Qiyun's expression remained unchanged. He simply gave a soft acknowledgement and continued listening.
"But I have things that I can do, too." Rin earnestly traced the page of the book in front of her. "I want to become a medical ninja and guard everyone from the rear."
If it were only Kakashi who was such a genius, that would be one thing, but there was also Qiyun. The Hatake brothers were like a terrifying chasm, pitifully reminding everyone of the gap between ordinary people and geniuses.
Rin couldn't be like Obito, who threw himself headfirst into the path of chasing geniuses purely on a wave of passionate impulse. She had made this decision only after careful consideration, discussing it with her parents for a long time and even going to observe and intern at the Konoha Hospital before finally making up her mind.
"What is this? No need to be so modest. A Rin who makes a decision like this is also amazing." Qiyun gazed at the girl, then broke into a smile, never sparing his praise.
Loving to hear nice words was simply human nature, and Rin was certainly no exception. Her face flushed slightly as she rebuked playfully, "Classmate Qiyun, who's first in our year, really knows how to talk."
"I've always known how to talk," Qiyun raised an eyebrow. "In that regard, Kakashi and I are worlds apart."
"Hahaha, Kakashi is indeed a bit sharp-tongued, especially when he's arguing with Obito."
Qiyun put on an exaggerated shake of his head, wearing an aggrieved expression as he said, "So for everyone's sake, I simply have to become the strongest, so I can keep these two under control and make them get along."
His comical antics made the girl laugh even more happily. The atmosphere between the two of them looked extremely harmonious, nearly making a certain someone secretly watching not far away grind his back teeth to dust.
"Kakashi, let's call a truce!" Obito stared hard at the scene, unsure of who or what was actually stirring up the sour acid in his heart.
Though Kakashi was slightly miffed, it stopped at that. In fact, he wouldn't mind if Rin ended up with his older brother; at least they knew her background, and Rin's gentle temperament suited Qiyun, who could occasionally be unreliable.
Yet Obito's reaction caught Kakashi completely off guard. Glancing at Obito's face, twisted into a knot of internal conflict, Kakashi felt a strong urge to make a sarcastic remark like, *When did we ever start a war?* or *Do you really call this level of bickering a war?*
However, considering how clingy Obito could be and the troublesome situation of having to deal with him if things got too rough, Kakashi swallowed his provocative words. Instead, he said slowly, "What, do you like Rin?"
"N-none of your business!" Even though he felt that wasn't quite right, Obito still couldn't help but snap back a retort.
Originally, he and Rin were just childhood playmates, but after entering the Academy, he had been hanging out with the Hatake brothers every single day. Plus, at this age, the minds of boys and girls diverged quite significantly, leaving them with practically no common topics. In truth, the two of them had drifted apart from their former closeness long ago.
Now that Kakashi brought the subject up again, Obito watched Rin and Qiyun smiling at each other, and a bitter, sour feeling welled up inside him, along with an urge to tear the two of them apart. Was this emotion because of... Rin?