Tobi

"I didn't do it," The eight year old boy declared.

Sarutobi shuffled his paperwork. "Several jounin spotted sheets of paper appear on various locations of the Monument. Upon further investigation, these were genjutsu seals, created and restricted only to the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke's eye twitched. "Is that why I'm here instead of the dobe?"

Sarutobi was about to speak- but Sasuke interrupted. "Wait, how do you know so much about the details of my clan's secret techniques?"

Sarutobi closed his mouth. This child was sharper than his innocent appearance betrayed. The Uchiha clan had been planning to rebel against the village, so obviously he had to take precautions to prepare for the worst case scenario like a war. He assigned ANBU and planted spies, including double agents such as Itachi, to dig out as many techniques as possible, to have countermeasures against them should the war break out.

No one else in the Uchiha knew this.

But that wasn't quite true. It was the privacy-invading actions like these which flamed Uchiha opinion against the village in the first place.

Sarutobi swallowed. "I am the Hokage, the strongest leader of Konoha. It is not unbelievable for a professor of my wisdom to know many things, especially about a clan that was here ever since the founding of this village."

Sarutobi had an idea to dig himself out of this hole. "I am giving you one chance. Let us both forget any of this ever happened, no talk, no lecture, no prank, and you may go home. Do not mention what you did."

"But I didn't do-"

"Nope. You did nothing, so cleanse it all from your memory. You are dismissed. Return home and work hard at school."

Sasuke grunted and left.

"Hn."

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Tobi was enduring. He had to do it for the new world. Madara, everyone was counting on him. Kakashi, Rin, Minato-sensei.

All of us will be together again. I promise.

Occasionally, he could feel his willpower breaking. Wondering why he was taking so many lives, why he was dishing out commands to massacre every kekkei genkai user in Kirigakure, or why, even now, he was plotting the death of his own clan. It felt wrong to have to kill the Uchiha he grew up with-and the fact that he had to do this, was exactly the wrongness of the world...This evil world was what he was trying to fix.

Once everything is over, once everyone gets their happy endings, I'll be allowed to relax.

Still, something tugged in his chest about the helpless elderly population, but that was impossible, Tobi didn't have a heart anymore. Obito is long dead.

The eyehole of his spiral mask darkened.

There must be a price of sacrifices for the utopia everyone will love. Besides, they aren't true sacrifices. These people will be back with us, in a better world. The Moon's Eye. The fixed world.

Someday they'll thank us...for returning their loved ones.

So why was it so difficult? He couldn't afford to slow down, not when the 3rd stage of his plan is already in place.

Oh, but that's okay. All Tobi needed was just a little motivation. When times grew brutal, he could always count on Kakashi mourning at his Memorial Stone.

He appreciated it, but for all the wrong reasons.

Tobi chuckled. If he went and forced himself to stare at Kakashi staring at his name for ten minutes, he'd feel motivated again, motivated to continue on with the Moon's Eye Plan! He had to save Kakashi, after all.

Tobi isn't saving just himself.

So he kamui'd out of the Mizukage office and materialized into the forest across the Memorial Stone. Kakashi was always on schedule, so Tobi peered at his KIA stone while suppressing his chakra completely.

But...Kakashi wasn't there.

What.

What he didn't know was that Kakashi was too busy searching for his Icha Icha novel and dealing with the investigation of the Hokage Monument Prank. Thus, he was not here today. And that someone else would be coming instead.

In denial, Tobi's Sharingan seemed to float closer to the clearing before his body completely materialized, Akatsuki cloak and everything. So what if he got caught, he could always time-space himself away. This was an important matter! Something must be wrong with Kakashi to miss his mourning time like this!

Tobi wobbled over to the stone and looked for the spot with the words "Obito Uchiha," then he distinctly sensed a chakra signature arriving in top civilian running speed. It was just a child's chakra, so Tobi could totally play around and mindfuck the kid before running off!

But.

Better safe and sorry.

Especially at a place like this.

So Tobi flailed and ran back into the treeline of the forest, and peered from the side of the tree he was hidden in, as the child came into view. It's a kawaii little girl with pink hair.

She was barely 10 to 20 meters away, and she didn't seem to sense him.

Tobi's Mangekyou Sharingan widened as the girl stopped in front of the Memorial Stone, panting hard and searching for a name.

Heh. At so young, and she's already lost a mother to war. But that's okay, eventually I'm going to bring her mother back.

He smiled behind his mask. He didn't need Kakashi for motivation. He's got this girl instead.

Tobi started sucking himself back into his dimension, already motivated enough to continue on with his plans, feeling no need to hear the private talk she was going to have with her dead mother.

"Ah! Sorry I'm late, Obito!"

Tobi froze.

"Hana-san wanted me to visit you and I never got the chance-Oh did I drop-Ah whew, look I've got your old goggles. Aren't they cute? Oh wait, you're dead, haahaha!"

Tobi shivered, doubts flitting through his mind a hundred a second. Then, he bristled.

"They said you were just like me, you helped old people out. Did you do it because you felt useless and weak? Ahahahah!" Sakura was giggling.

Murderous amounts of chakra pulled into his single eye, preparing to cast a genjutsu.

Brain damage? Nah, she'll be fine once everything's finally over, though it may take a few decades. Jinchuuriki were hard to catch.

She deserved what was she was going to get. How dare she mock him.

"Shannaro~! You should've seen what I just did with the-"

This time it was Sakura who suddenly froze, sweat droplets sliding down her face, green eyes wide with trepidation.

Sadistically, Tobi smirked. Time for you to get mindfucked.

__________________________________________________________________________________________