Chapter 9

"You know, you don't have to do this. You don't owe him anything." Kakashi told him as he walked Obito to the door of his apartment that Obito had spent the night in.

"I know I don't. He is still my brother though, and for the last time, yes I'm sure that I want to go by myself." Obito said as he put on his blue jacket, Uchiha crest included now that he didn't have to hide who he was.

It had been about a week since Kakashi had brought Obito back to the leaf village, and they had proven that Madara was, in fact, alive. Today was the first day the prison was allowing visitors.

"I know, I know. You want to talk to him by yourself." Kakashi said, rolling his eyes. "Your place or mine tonight?"

"Yours, I think. It's closer to the training grounds." Obito replied. He gave Kakashi a quick peck on the cheek before he left.

The guard that he was calling Vashti in his head was reading manga, and wasn't that close to the cell Madara was in, so Obito figured he had at least a little privacy to talk with his brother.

"I was wondering if you'd show up or not. Your boyfriend already lectured me about what I put you through, so you don't need to if that's what you're here for." Madara said when he spotted Obito walking over to his cell.

"Wasn't planning on it. How'd he manage to do that when visitors weren't allowed?"

"The same way Sasuke and Itachi, separately, were able to come into try to kill me. Sneaking in."

They sat down across from each other with the bars of the cell between them. Obito couldn't see it with Madara's sleeves in the way, but he knew his brother had a tattoo sealing his chakra, so he wasn't particularly dangerous at the moment.

"So, no one's answered me on just what the hell it is that you did to me. I'm hoping you'll be able to explain that." Madara said after a little bit of silence.

"Apparently something the sharingan can do. I discovered it in the hidden mist village when some guy was trying to kill me. I'd been working with the sharingan a lot, but I hadn't really expected that. We were all a bit confused about where his weapons went at the time. I've been working on it for about three months. I wasn't sure it would actually work on a person." Obito replied.

"Okay, but what was it?"

"Some kind of dementional jump." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

It got quite again as Madara seemed to think that over. "You know, getting you in trouble was never part of the plan." Madara said to break the silence stretching between them.

"There was a plan? I thought you were just killing Uchihas."

"Yeah, that was the plan. Kill every Uchiha, present company excluded, and go back home. Maybe move on, maybe die and be with Rin and our baby. I don't know which. It went wrong though because Itachi and Sasuke saw me. I knew what they'd think, and I went to warn you, but you weren't home. I had to leave, and I figured if they didn't catch you you'd go looking for me. I'm still not sure how you got someone to go along for the ride with you though." Madara explained.

He looked exhausted, and it hit Obito that Madara was probably sleeping about as much as he himself was. Obito was still constantly waking up to nightmares about his family and Rin. He imagined Madara was suffering a similar fate with nightmares about Rin's death.

"Why did you kill all of them? Some of those people were children. Kids who couldn't have hurt Rin if they had wanted to." That had been bothering him a lot as he tried to figure out what had gone through his brother's head.

"The psychologist are calling it temporary insanity caused by the trauma of Rin dying." He waved his hand dismissively at the notion. "Can't say I really disagree. The logic behind that was flimsy at best. No witnesses and if every single Uchiha were dead they couldn't pass down the values of kill to get your way."

"You weren't planning to kill me, you said. So, what happened there?"

Madara looked at him like he thought Obito had suffered a head injury before sighing and explaining that. "I know that you're not like them. You couldn't even kill me after I'd killed the entire clan. The point was to wipe out that line of thought. Killing you would have been pointless." He said with a roll of his eyes.

It got quite after that again. They'd never had so much trouble talking to each other before. Then again, they'd never had these circumstances either.

"You know, if I had done the exact same thing to another clan in a village we weren't friendly with, the Mist for example, I'd be a hero. I do it here and I'm a murderous psychopath." Madara remarked.

"You sound like me." Obito reminded him.

"No I don't. If I sounded like you I would have said 'I'm a fucking murderous psychopath.' You curse more than me." Madara corrected.

"Still sounds like me."

They used to have debates like that when one of them slipped into the speech patterns of the other. It happened a lot because of the pretending to be each other thing they used to do.

"You have a point though. However, in this instance you're killing your own people. Hell, your own family, which people see as even worse. In your hypothetical situation you're helping lession the numbers of an enemy. There is a difference." Obito told him.

"And now you sound like me."

"One of us has to rationalize things. Clearly you weren't when all of this happened."

Silence again. Obito didn't like it.

"At least now any resentment people had towards me can be talked about out loud."

"What are you talking about?" Obito asked, cocking his head slightly.

"Oh, I imagine everyone's talking bad about me now. I knew they resented me before, but now they can feel good about that instead of feeling petty for it." Madara said.

"Why would people resent you before you were the one who probably killed a friend of theirs?"

Madara scoffed. "Please. Like you weren't one of them." He said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I was the favorite child. Better grades, better fighter, got the girl you thought you loved."

"Let's not forget to put arrogant on that list." Obito muttered.

"All of that practically breeds resentment. Which you took out in training to try to become a better fighter than me. I suppose that paid off. For other people, I was cold, smart, powerful enough to be considered for leader of a clan at sixteen, teacher's favorite, and with a hot girl. Now they can brag to their friends 'I always knew there was something wrong with him' and feel better about themselves. They wanted to be like me then, and now they can think how wonderful it is that they weren't." Madara continued without pause, as if Obito hadn't spoken.

"There is a lot of that being said." Obito admitted. "However, while no one agrees with the extremes you went to, some people are debating on just how bad what you did is if you did it because of the Uchihas killing Rin and your unborn child." Obito told him.

"Not surprised. People love controversy, and a villain with a good sob story always causes plenty of that." Madara said with a humorless chuckle.

"I don't know that I'd call you a villain." Obito said.

"You're biased." Madara told him.

"Probably." Obito shrugged his shoulders. "But I'm also biased the other way since it was my family that was killed."

"Unless you got particularly close to anyone while I was gone, I'm not sure how much bias that gives you."

"I liked Shisui. He was nice to me. Itachi's best friend."

"Sorry about that then." Madara said, and he did sound kind of sorry.

"Can't quite say I forgive you."

"I wouldn't expect you to."

"Visiting hours are over." Vashti called over to the twins without looking up from her manga.

"Are you coming back?" Madara asked him.

Obito kind of felt bad for him. He shouldn't, not after the things Madara had done, but he was still his brother and he couldn't help it. He was by himself, aside from guards who probably didn't like him, with just his thoughts about what had happened. "Yeah, I'll be here tomorrow. I might even bring some cards for you to kick my ass at poker." He said, giving a small smile.

Madara nodded, tentatively returning the smile, and Obito started walking away.

"Hey, Obito!" Madara called, stopping him when he was almost out the door. "That boyfriend of yours really cares about you. Keep him." Madara told him. It was actually the only time he could remember Madara approving of one of his boyfriends. He'd never thought they were good enough for his twin.

"I plan to." Obito flashed a bright smile before leaving.

He still couldn't forgive Madara, but he wasn't giving up on him. And he meant what he said. He had no plans of losing Kakashi any time soon.