A long time ago, I didn't have a particularly happy life. I had a lame job in a restaurant. I wasn't really close to anyone, neither my family or any of my friends. I still had a couple years of college left but it wasn't like I was in a hurry before I left anyways. Thinking back, maybe I should have told someone I was leaving indefinitely.

Still, I never felt like a failure. But neither did I ever feel like I really belonged anywhere. It's funny how for so long all I wanted was to know who I really was but it turned out that I wasn't really much of anyone at all. Sure, it turns out I'm the reincarnation of Hamura Otsusuki but in a world without chakra it didn't really mean anything.

One day I had received a message from an unknown address asking if I had regretted coming into this world, a universe barren of chakra or ninjutsu. The message said that the writer was sorry for not being able to do something himself and asked if I could take care of it for him.

Something inside me inspired myself to reply, "How can I help?"

And I woke up here fifteen...er, thirteen years ago? That is, I woke up as a child in this world, able to remember everything except who I was or why I had been sent here. Apparently my biological parents here had enough Senju and Hyuuga in their lineages that I was the most compatible body for myself, if that makes sense.

I was sent to the night of Naruto's birth because it was the time when there was enough bijuu chakra to make the journey possible. Apparently it was the Ten-Tails' chakra that let Hagoromo and Hamura leave this universe centuries ago.

It turns out that it wasn't the first life in which I felt kind of distant from everything. Hagoromo and his brother decided together to leave this world once their work sealing Princess Kaguya was finished. Unfortunately, past-life-me spent too much of my chakra setting up some stuff on the moon and died after travelling to a new universe that didn't really support ninjutsu.

But it turns out bad things will happen if Kaguya manages to get resurrected and the Sage of Six Paths isn't around to help Naruto and Sasuke. That's why I gotta step back in and make sure Mother Dearest doesn't come to visit. Cause Hagoromo is too old and lazy to do it himself. But also not really strong enough anymore to make it back here himself, only enough to send someone else.

Fast forward to Obito using his Kamui on that body you're in right now, Isobu. I wake up in my old universe in my old body. Hagoromo messaged me again and explained that he had sent the majority of my spiritual energies to this universe so that I could fix things here while leaving most of my yang energy behind so that my old body wouldn't just die and so that I could come back eventually once I was done if I wanted. That's why my memory was so spotty when I got here.

Anyways, that link got triggered when Obito used his space-time jutsu and I got snapped back to my old reality and my old body. Now I'm confused as hell but Hagoromo explains everything to me over a lengthy video chat...er, a face to face discussion. And since there isn't enough energy to send me back to my old body, he sent me somewhere with enough magical energy to lock onto but also where I can basically get my old body back again. It's a one way trip though.

Enter: Jusenkyo. I fall from the sky about 30 meters into the Spring of Drowned Young Man. This is a cursed spring where if you fall in, you take the form of whatever drowned in that spring. I come out of the spring and I've basically got my old body back. How convenient, right? Hagoromo came up with a pretty good plan except he forgot the parachute. I probably peed a little in that spring since I was so scared that I was going to die! You don't do that to someone. You don't drop them out of the sky into a training ground filled with bamboo shafts that can turn you into a human shish kabob if you happen to land one meter away.

Anyways, I end up traveling with some martial artists to their dojo where I spend a couple years training. Eventually, I get a hold of this magical artifact that let me get back here and then you basically know the rest, right?

Isobu's uncovered eye fluttered between open and closed as he lay on the bedroll Haru had summoned. He and Haru were only one more day away from Konoha on foot, at least at the speed ninja travel. "Aniki, shut up. You've been talking forever. This human body requires sleep. It is annoying."

"That you need to sleep?"

"No. You."

"Heh. Alright, Isobu. Good night."

In the dead of night, Obito awoke with a gasp. He jerked up to realize he had been lying on a low tree branch. The types of trees nearby indicated that he wasn't too far away from Konohagakure. On the ground below were the remains of a campfire and that brat who had attacked him, sleeping peacefully.

He tried to warp down to the ground using his Kamui technique but it failed to do anything. The last thing he remembered was stabbing Haru with his katana and getting pulled into some kind of trap jutsu. Maybe it had been some kind of genjutsu. No, his sharingan would have seen through an illusion. Some kind of mind control technique?

He touched his face to realize he wasn't wearing his mask. He then realized that something else was off. His face was no longer rough and misshapen. And he had a long ponytail of dark red hair.

Obito's eyes widened and his pulse quickened. Obviously, something had gone wrong with Haru's plan. The only question was how to benefit from his mistake. He would need time to examine whatever sealing jutsu the boy had alluded to earlier. He considered the limited resources he would have access to without his Sharingan. It was appalling how limited his options were.

He stood up on the tree branch. Summoning his chakra, Obito spouted a flame above an extended fingertip. Ordinarily, the rudimentary beginner jutsu would have been effortless. It had taken a bit more effort than normal, as if pulling his chakra through a hose from somewhere deeper down. More importantly though, he noted that it had the distinctive feel of his own chakra as opposed to Haru's chakra.

Trying again with a different jutsu, Obito attempted to summon a wood pillar. Unfortunately, he had no access to the wood release. It made sense given that this body hadn't been infused with Hashirama Senju's DNA.

Unhappy with the results of his minor experiment, Obito decided it would be prudent to distance himself from what was most likely the bijuu sleeping below him. It would be easy to track it down and subdue it once he regained his Sharingan. Considering his options, he realized that the largest supply of Sharingan eyes was only a day away.

He remembered the last time he had returned to Konoha. He had commanded the Kyubi to destroy it. That night had been a failure in so many ways. He failed to secure the most powerful bijuu. He failed to defeat his old...to defeat the Yondaime. Konohagakure yet stood as an irritating reminder of his past.

Obito looked down at the sleeping, helpless boy who had somehow turned the tables on him from the brink of death and presumably sealed him into some kind of clone. He remembered that the Sanbi had also been sealed into a similar copy of Haru. Where was it now? In the silence of the night, Obito could hear blood pulsing through his ears as he stood still as if the slightest noise would wake a sleeping monster. There were only the two of them.

Still, moreso than the possibility of waking a bijuu, there was a part of Obito that shied away from from having to face that damned red-haired boy again. How could someone who just took a chunin exam defeat him? He would figure out what trick the boy had used and then kill him twice over.

But Obito did not know why there were no restraints on him. He did not know why the boy could sleep so calmly when the last thing Obito remembered was stabbing him through the chest. There were so many questions and no answers. But answers could come after he was no longer defenseless.

So the Uchiha in Haru's body left the bijuu in Haru's body behind and bound towards Konoha, hoping to steal some sealing supplies and a Sharingan or two. If Obito was lucky, they'd welcome 'Haru' back with open arms. And even if Obito wasn't lucky, Zetsu liked to keep an eye on wherever there was destruction and carnage...