Chapter 18: you're tired now, lie downNotes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Raijin is decidedly having not the best day.
With his rank as jounin finally processed officially, the Hokage had been free to release the truth behind the events of Obito's rescue and it had been revealed to all of the world that it had been Raijin who slayed Uchiha Madara himself. Essentially, he'd been thrown to the dogs for the picking since everyone and their grandmother seemed to want to jump him for an 'inside scoop' on what it was like to kill the first missing nin.
That damn old man Hokage is seriously starting to piss Raijin off into straight up having borderline treasonous thoughts.
This had been followed up by the Uchiha clan sending him an official invitation to their compound for a formal dinner to thank him for his services in eliminating their most prolific traitor. Apparently those sharingan-eyed bastards can make decisions at the speed of light considering how they'd hopped to it as soon as the information went from being confidential to public.
Then he'd gotten hopelessly at some point while trying to escape a gaggle of very persistent kunoichi who apparently found him and his 'heroic actions' very attractive and were just dying to prove this to him. For the most part, Raijin can get by since Konoha's general layout didn't change too much, but a lot of the inner streets and alleys confuse him because he's used to them a different way in a post-Kyuubi attack Konohagakure.
He'd been confused enough about where the fuck he'd managed to wander off to that he just gave up and ended up having to ask the ANBU tailing him to point him in the right direction. Up until that point, Raijin had been very polite about playing dumb and acting like he had absolutely no idea his masked stalkers were even there, but desperate times call for desperate measures and all.
Deer had been just as confused as Raijin about the whole ordeal, but he'd been very nice and kindly set him back on the right path to his apartment.
Which is where he promptly got accosted and abducted by one Nara Shikaku because apparently he'd committed some grave transgression against the man in a past life, and now Shikaku was here to extract revenge by absolutely destroying Raijin in a series of games of shogi.
After the fifth consecutive loss, he'd just offered to apologise for whatever he did but Shikaku had only looked at him with clear amusement and handily presented him with his sixth defeat.
Man, Raijin had thought that Shikamaru was brutal on that fucking board but Shikaku is in a different league of mean altogether. It's not like Raijin is a bad player. He knows he's creative and slippery—a style he'd been forced to develop because the only people he really played shogi with had been Shikamaru and Kakashi, who were both way smarter and strategy oriented than him. To the genius types, it's probably like going from kicking pebbles on a road to a can; Raijin rattles so he's more entertaining.
"Where did you learn to play, Raijin-kun?" Shikaku asks conversationally, completely at ease.
Meanwhile, Raijin is literally sweating bullets as he tries to protect his King with one rook, gold general and silver general. Shikaku is wielding every other piece on the board, including the ones he'd stolen from Raijin. Ugh, he's going to go stick his head in some dirt after this and never resurface.
"From a friend when we were still in school," he answers, scowling at the board. "I managed to beat him exactly once and that was only because he straight up fell asleep halfway through."
Shikaku snorts. He advances for Raijin's rook, barely even glancing at the board to make his move. "You didn't learn from your sensei?"
"Hah," Raijin scoffs. He captures one of Shikaku's silver generals and nearly sobs at how nice it feels to have more than four pieces. "That old pervert only swept in to kick my ass once he knew I was decent enough to provide him with some amusement when things were slow."
"Well, your plays are rather amusing." Shikaku smirks and takes Raijin's rook, effectively putting his King in check.
Seriously contemplating the benefits of straight up throwing his remaining pieces at Shikaku's head, Raijin narrows his eyes and stares at the game. He's going to lose in five more moves. "Nope," he announces. "I'm resigning."
Shikaku nods, and starts to methodically separate the pieces and clear the board. "You should have done that eight moves ago," he informs helpfully.
Blood pressure instantly skyrocketing, Raijin gapes at the older man. "Wow, dude, you're a real fucking asshole."
That startles a laugh out of Shikaku. "Not many people have said that straight to my face before."
"But some definitely have," Raijin infers, nodding in commiseration. "You did basically just spend the past three hours bullying an innocent teenager for literally no reason."
The smile on Shikaku's face is sharp. "Don't sell yourself so short, Raijin-kun," he says. "You make for a very interesting opponent."
And nope. He knows what that look means: it spells nothing but trouble. "I don't like that at all," Raijin informs Shikaku sincerely. "I'm going to run away and it's going to be your fault."
Barking out another laugh, Shikaku grins at him wickedly. "You've certainly lost some of that irritating filter of yours."
Raijin blinks at the man incredulously. "First of all," he holds up a finger, "I've never been accused of having a filter before. Most people actually recommend I go find one, so maybe you're the weird one, Shikaku-san. Secondly, I literally just spent three hours having my brain collapse in on itself like a dying star—excuse me for not wanting to use it anymore. Or, like, ever again."
"You do talk more than any one person should be allowed to," Shikaku concedes, "but you don't actually ever say much about yourself, Raijin-kun." Dark eyes narrow, pinning Raijin in place. "And you do it on purpose too."
Yeah, because he literally shouldn't exist in this timeline. That kind of throws the mother of all wrenches in any plans people have of getting to know him. No one even knows his real name.
Raijin wisely refrains from saying any of this, clicking his mouth shut for good measure. His brain genuinely is too fucked for him to be playing mind games with a Nara. It's better to just not open it at all in case it runs off on its own.
After all, it has been known to happen before.
"Do you want to know what I've learned from your shogi, Raijin-kun?" Shikaku asks. Since Raijin is currently undertaking a spontaneous vow of silence to protest violence in the world at large, Shikaku just continues. "You're very good at facades and you're not nearly as impulsive as you make yourself out to be. You're used to hiding your true intentions behind false starts while you lay your traps just out of notice. You're used to keeping just out of reach and prolonging the chase though you know you're going to lose. You're used to trying to hold out even when the end is clear."
Shikaku regards him thoughtfully, head tilted and mouth pressed into a thin line. Raijin blinks blankly at him.
"Shogi is a battle of generals," the man continues, "but the idea is to still approach it as a playmaker. As a strategist." Raijin's eyes narrow ever so slightly. "You play like you're the gold general himself. Like you're actually fighting the battle. Like a soldier. You don't like sacrificing pieces even for a play and you keep trying to look for ways through even when you know you're better off resigning." Shikaku offers him a bland smile. "It's very interesting."
Raijin swallows. "Maybe I just suck at the game," he suggests.
"Maybe," Shikaku shrugs, "but we both know that isn't true. You're not half as stupid as you'd have others believe, Raijin-kun."
What feels like a lifetime ago, Shikamaru had said something similar to Raijin. "You're not half as stupid as people want you to be, Naruto, so stop acting like it." Wow, he really misses his friend.
"Shikaku-san," Raijin declares slowly, decisively, "I am going to break into your house, put bugs in your pillow and replace your toothpaste with shoe polish."
Because he's an absolute bastard, Shikaku only grins at Raijin, languid and smug. Raijin decides he's also going to shave off this man's eyebrows for good measure.
Once he's back home, Raijin spends a good chunk of his evening formulating a plan of action against all the hair on Shikaku's head in general instead of finishing his mission reports like he's supposed to. He's just trying to figure out the semantics of breaking into the compound through the Nara forest when frantic knocking on his door interrupts his train of thought.
Raijin turns to stare at the door with narrowed eyes, contemplating if he should even bother opening it. With how the rest of his day has gone so far, it might just be Orochimaru come calling.
And then the knocking turns into straight up banging.
"Raijin-san? Please tell me you're home."
Blinking, Raijin is moving to open the door before he can even think twice about it because Obito is on the other side and the boy sounds an awful lot like he might be crying. And he's right. Obito is crying when Raijin comes face to face with him. Full on red-faced-and-heaving-for-breath kind of crying. Like, on-the-verge-of-a-panic-attack kind of crying.
Raijin's eyes widen. "Obito-kun, what's going on? Are you hurt?"
Obito only manages a shake of his head before he's throwing himself at Raijin with a bitten off wail, burying his face in the older man's chest and clinging like he's going to drift away if he doesn't hold on for all he's worth.
'Oh,' Raijin thinks, gently shutting the door behind Obito and easing them to the floor of the genkan. 'I suppose this is overdue.'
He'd been wondering just when it would hit Obito that he nearly died in those caverns, came so close to having his entire life stolen from him for the sake of one old man's dreams of a perfect utopia, and instead found himself returned to his village like nothing ever happened, in a body modified permanently against his will, and with an ability and pressure he didn't ask for. It seems like the answer is now.
Admittedly, he's surprised that Obito came to find Raijin at all. He'd expected it would be Minato or Kakashi or Rin. People Obito had known most of his life and cherished as his precious ones. People he'd wanted to come back home to.
All the same, since it's him in this position, the least Raijin can do is hold the boy and weather the storm with him.
Gently, Raijin settles himself his back against the wall and pulls Obito onto his lap, letting the boy wrap his arms around his waist and twist his fingers into Raijin's t-shirt. He holds Obito just as tightly, pressing the boy close and curling around him so as to surround him in his own presence, pulling his chakra in and around them like a weighted blanket, trying to convey safety and reassurance in every way he can think of.
Raijin hasn't ever been comforted like this, but he knows the words he'd wished someone had said to him when he needed to hear them, knows the way he'd have liked to be held when he'd been all alone in an apartment too empty for just one kid. He holds Obito now like the boy probably hasn't been held in far too long. Close and precious; pressing him to his heart and carding fingers through dark curls as he gently rocks them side to side.
"You're safe now, Obito-kun," he promises softly. "You're safe and you're home and it will all be okay now. You're going to be okay. I've got you. I'm right here. You're not alone and you're going to be okay. I promise you."
Obito shakes his head. "I'm not," he sobs. "I'm not okay. I don't know how to be okay. I don't know anything."
"That's alright," Raijin soothes, resting his cheek on the top of Obito's head. "It's okay if you don't know, Obito-kun. You can take your time to figure things out. We'll be right there with you. We'll help you until you do feel okay again. You're not alone, Obito. Your team loves and cares for you. I care for you. It's going to be okay. You're safe now."
Obito doesn't say anything to that. He shivers in Raijin's hold, breath hitching, and burrows even closer. Raijin lets him, pushing comfort-safety-love-love-love into his chakra and wrapping it around Obito's trembling summer-spark-citrus-copper.
He doesn't really know the best way to go about comforting a traumatised teenager but he's sure as hell going to his damn best. Obito needs that from him right now and Raijin doesn't want to fail him.
He presses his lips to the crown of the boy's head and settles in for a long night.
It is Minato who eventually comes to find them four hours later, having gone into something of a frenzy when Kakashi came to him half-crazed because he couldn't find Obito.
The boy hadn't been at any of his usual haunts and Minato had been about fifteen seconds away from launching a search party himself, convinced of the worst, when he'd finally managed to sense Obito's chakra flickering peacefully in Raijin's apartment. Practically falling off the roof from the force his relief, he had immediately headed off in the direction of his brother's home, reaching with his chakra to seek Obito's out and reassure himself that his student hadn't in fact been taken away from him again.
He's on Raijin's balcony within heartbeats, rapping his knuckles against the glass door. Inside the dark apartment, he feels Raijin's chakra ping to awareness and Minato winces slightly, a little guilty for having woken his little brother up. He supposes he could have just gone back now that he has confirmed that Obito is safe and sound, but—
But Minato needs to see him. He needs to be able to physically see Obito and make sure the boy is alive and well for himself. His nerves won't settle with anything less.
A sleepy-eyed Raijin approaches the balcony, scrubbing at his messier-than-usual hair and yawning. He blinks slowly upon finding Minato on the other side of the door but wordlessly deactivates his security barrier seal and slides the door open to let his brother in.
"Are you here for Obito-kun?" he asks Minato, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes while Minato takes his sandals off before entering.
Minato softens, smiling slightly. He reaches tentatively for Raijin's chakra, some of the tension easing out of his frame when Raijin readily reaches back, curling his chakra around Minato's without a second thought. Minato allows himself a second to bask in the warmth that is so characteristic of Raijin's chakra—like an endless summer afternoon by the sea—before reluctantly pulling away.
"Can I see him?" he asks, keeping his voice soft despite the urgency in his tone.
Raijin tilts his head. "Of course." He waves for Minato to follow him out of the bedroom and into the living room. "He showed up at my door around six. I think he's finally processing everything."
Exhaling sharply through his nose, Minato nods. "I should have seen this coming," he mutters to himself.
"He knocked himself out a few hours ago," Raijin informs. "On the couch," he adds over his shoulder as he makes a beeline for the kitchen. Minato hears the creak of a cabinet door opening followed by the rushing of water in the sink. "Do you want something to drink, nii-chan?"
"Just some water please," Minato calls back, suddenly aware of just how dry his throat his.
When he finally catches sight of Obito curled up on Raijin's sofa, tucked away amidst Raijin's extensive collection of mismatched blankets and pillows, Minato finally relaxes completely. There is still a bit of salt crusted on Obito's cheek from dried tears, but his face is otherwise at peace. Like this, he looks even smaller than he is.
Approaching on silent feet, Raijin hands him a mug of water with a wane smile. "You look like you've been through it."
Minato huffs out a laugh, shaking his head. "I may have lost my cool there," he admits. The water is cool as he swallows it down.
"I can imagine." Raijin scratches at the whiskers on his cheek, looking sheepish. "I would have sent you one of my foxes if I'd known you would freak out. Sorry about that."
And, well, he can't have that. Minato bumps Raijin's shoulder with his own. "Not your fault," he says simply. "I'm just relieved to see him safe."
Lips pursing, Raijin eyes him. "You—Are you, like, upset? That he came here instead of to you?"
Minato blinks. "What?" he says. "No, of course not, Raijin. I mean, I hope Obito knows that he could have come to me but I understand why he might have chosen to come to you. You saved his life after all." He shakes his head. "I'm just glad he didn't try to get through it by himself."
Tension that Minato hadn't even realised had been there bleeds out of Raijin's shoulders. In the quiet apartment, barefooted and in wrinkled pyjamas, suddenly Raijin too looks a lot smaller than he is. It occurs to Minato that his brother is only five years older than Obito.
Minato isn't stupid. He knows that Raijin has been through a lot even if he stubbornly never mentions it. There had been friends and teachers once before the boy came to Minato. Faces to accompany the names Raijin mentions sometimes when caught in a soft moment of melancholy. Obviously something must have happened to so thoroughly wipe out Raijin's entire circle of loved ones; something that he alone has survived.
Sage only knows how many times Minato has nearly lost his brother before he ever even knew of him. Had Raijin ever been like Obito—stuck alone in a situation with no one even aware that he needed help? Had he just had to save himself? How many times had he needed MInato to be there before they'd even known they had each other?
The thought of it makes something thick and painful crawl down Minato's throat and take root there, aching in his chest.
"I'm glad Obito has you, Raijin," he tells his brother earnestly, reaching out to brush the hair away from his eyes, settling his palm against Raijin's cheek. He is deliberately careful, always. With Raijin, Minato always thinks twice and does his best to offer only his gentlest side. To be soft, slow and mindful. A perfectionist till the end. "And I'm glad you have him too. I couldn't ever mind that even if I wanted to."
Raijin's eyes are wide as he tracks Minato's every move.
"I want you to have people who love and cherish you, otouto. I want you to be able to look back and always have someone to reach for and rely on," Minato continues. "And I hope you know that I will always be one of those people. You aren't alone anymore, Raijin. I, for one, am very glad for that."
Perhaps he shouldn't have been so surprised, but Minato is nonetheless startled when he suddenly finds himself with an armful of teenage shinobi. Abruptly, he realises that he has never hugged Raijin before. There have been plenty of pats on shoulders and ruffling of hair, but this is the first time he has ever actually held his baby brother.
Face pressed against Minato's shoulder, Raijin whispers, "Thanks, nii-chan."
Circling his arms around Raijin's smaller frame, Minato presses his cheek against soft golden hair that is the same as his own. "Of course, Raijin."
Raijin may have had to go through everything on his own up till now, but Minato is here now, and he's going to make sure his little brother never has to go through anything by himself ever again.
Raijin isn't proud of it, but admittedly, he'd straight up forgotten to tell Jiraiya that the Ame Orphans are actually alive and well.
The man had sought him out personally after hearing from Kushina that Raijin knows of an Uzumaki boy in Amegakure who is apparently a leader of Akatsuki. Raijin had physically cringed as it hit him that he should have probably mentioned something about that sooner.
He's still kind of stewing in guilt over it even as he and Minato wave Jiraiya off on his trip to Ame to reconnect with the students he had believed to be dead up until Raijin had informed that the trio is very much alive and well.
"You know," Minato comments thoughtfully, watching Jiraiya's figure get smaller and smaller on the horizon, "it's strange how you seem to be at the centre of so many things, Raijin."
Raijin, who has in fact artificially crafted most of the scenarios Minato is referring to, shifts on his feet and smiles thinly. "You think so?" he says. "Sakura-chan used to say it's because I'm really fucking nosy."
Minato chuckles, his smile making his nose scrunch up slightly. "Well, regardless of the reason, I suppose it makes us rather lucky that you found your way to us when you did."
He doesn't know how right he is, and Raijin doesn't tell him.
Contemplative, he watches Jiraiya head off to finish the final step in ensuring Akatsuki has no reason to ever turn evil before turning away.
There's still work to be done after all. He can't afford to let something slip again.
"Hey, nii-chan," he starts, "do you know where I could get my hands on some formal wear on short notice?"
Minato tilts his head. "I'm sure we can find something. If not, you can just borrow something from me. What's the occasion?"
Raijin grins at him. "I have a dinner to attend."
It's time to start solving The Uchiha Problem (trademark pending).
Notes:
The response for the previous chapter admittedly kind of blew me away. All of your comments made me so happy. I'm also really surprised by how many of you even bother to read the end notes. I've taken to just kind of ranting whatever here; I didn't expect for people to actually see the ninja Princess Diana comment lol.