Chapter 1

"It seems like a bad idea. We could get in trouble." Obito commented, leaning against the wall of his bedroom as Madara dug through his closet for something that wasn't 'unbearably idiotic looking' as his clothing had been called. Because apparently a touch of color other than blue and black was really that bad. It wasn't as big of a deal as Madara made it sound.

"You've never been one to care much about getting in trouble." Madara said with a scoff, not even bothering to look up from what he was doing. "Weren't you just grounded last night for getting into that fight with Sasuke?"

"That was different. And it's not my fault that he told mom I cursed in front of him. I mean, it kind of is, but he still didn't have to get me in trouble for it. It's not like he doesn't talk the same way around Naruto." The last part was muttered, but Madara still clearly heard since he poked his head out of Obito's closet long enough to roll his eyes at him.

"He's seven. He does not talk like that around anyone. And if he does, it's because Naruto's a bad influence on him." Madara refused to see Sasuke as anything other than a perfect little Uchiha. Obito had a different opinion. The kid could be okay sometimes, usually when Naruto was around, but Obito wouldn't trust him as far as he could throw him. If the little brat ratted him out again he may find out just how far that was. But that was a thought for another time. Right now he was focused on his twin, who seemed to have found something he could stand to be seen in, even if he wasn't being seen as himself.

"I still think this is a bad idea." Obito told him.

"We've done this a thousand times." Probably pretty close. One of the fun things about having an identical twin was getting to trade places and confuse people.

And honestly, the only real way to tell Madara and Obito apart were their clothing styles and personalities. Madara stuck to the typical dark blue and black with the Uchiha crest. Obito was almost never without his trusty orange tinted goggles –"No Madara, they aren't stupid, you are!"- and could be found with hints of colors in his clothing. There was also their levels of ability with the sharingan, but unless they were fighting that wasn't much of a giveaway. Madara was better at it, but Obito was working hard every day to catch up.

"Yeah, but that's always just been for fun. This is serious." Obito objected.

"Of course it is. That's why I'm going to do it."

Obito knew it wasn't meant to be mean, but that didn't make it not sting a bit.

"I can do serious things." He insisted.

Madara didn't confirm or deny that. "Well, you asked for my help." He pointed out. Which wasn't quite true. Obito had woken up and promptly fallen out of bed when the alarm went off –late no less, he must have hit snooze a few times.

Madara had come running in to make sure Obito was okay, only to find Obito in a mess of papers, books, and blankets. Obito explained (read: frantically muttered until Madara was able to figure out what he was talking about) how he had fallen asleep trying to study for a test and how it was such a big grade and he didn't have time now. So, oh so helpfully, Madara had taken it upon himself to help Obito by taking it for him. Madara's class had taken it the week before and were having a silent work day that day anyway, so it wasn't like Obito would have to do much as Madara.

Thus it wasn't quite that Obito had asked for help as Madara decided he needed it. He didn't want to argue too much though, because he really did need the help.

It was simpler then he thought it would be. No one questioned that they might not be who they said they were. Which could say something for their acting skills. Or for their friends attention skills. Obito kind of wondered if he should be offended that none of his friends thought anything was even a little off. He also wondered if Madara had the same worries about his own friends.

When he asked about it, Madara had simply told him, "If they couldn't tell, then we did our jobs. If they don't know then our teaches definitely don't, so consider it a good thing."

Obito didn't spend a lot of time in his apartment. He had missions, friends, and sometimes just didn't feel like staying there.

Today, however, he went home. He'd just gotten back from a mission getting some intel from a few Mist ninja. He was tired and just wanted to go to sleep. He was already back later than he was supposed to be. He hadn't even bothered dropping off the mission report. He'd do it in the morning after he'd gotten some rest.

It seemed that the universe had different plans for him.

He noticed the figure in the shadows as soon as he walked into his appartment, and had his sharingan activated in no time.

Upon further inspection he saw that the intruder was wearing an Ambu mask. He wasn't sure if that should make him feel better or worse about the situation.

"Can I help you?" He asked, looking the other up and down to take in every detail. Hound design on the mask, average height, male. Nothing very identifying, but he knew that was the point.

"Uchiha Obito?" Came a voice from behind the mask.

"The one and only." He replied, still a little suspicious of the situation.

"I need you to come with me."

He couldn't think of a single thing he had done to warrant a visit from an Ambu, certainly nothing that would require him to go anywhere.

"Of course. May I know why?" Obito asked as he opened the door and walked out with the masked man behind him. He didn't get an answer, but that wasn't particularly surprising.

They walked together for a few blocks before Obito decided to make his escape. Or attempt to. He figured he had a fifty/fifty shot at actually getting away. He'd had worse odds before.

He took off running, suddenly making a sharp turn as he did so.

He couldn't hear the Ambu's footsteps, but he knew the other was following him. Even if he couldn't sense his chakra, Obito wasn't so delusional that he actually believed it would be as simple as running. And that hound mask would make trying ginjutsu on this guy a pain in the ass because of the inability to make eye contact from a distance.

He aimed his body to look like he was going to turn one way, but then went the other. The simple trick did nothing to shake the Ambu, but he would be concerned for the safety of the village if it was that easy to shake its best ninja.

Obito mentally decided to name said Amub, because he couldn't just keep calling him 'the Ambu' as if he were actually the only one following him. Wherever one was you could expect about half a dozen to be close by. So, hound mask Ambu was now dubbed Steve as far as Obito was concerned.

Speaking of Steve, he had apparently decided that was the perfect time to appear in front of him. So, Obito took that as his cue to take this little chase scene up to the rooftops.

Without even a moment for surprise at Steve showing up in front of him, Obito gathered his chakra in the soles of his feet and ran up the side of the yellow building next to him, before he started moving from roof top to roof top, Steve following close behind.

He was a bit surprised when Sasuke showed up, but decided to take back every bad thing he'd ever said about his cousin since the boy was standing between himself and Steve. He was all for Steve's path to him being blocked.

Until Sasuke started making hand signs Obito recognized and launched a fire ball bigger than Sasuke himself at him. After that all bad things said about him were reinstated, and a few new ones were added.

He could use Sasuke's attempted murder to his advantage though.

Obito waited until the last possible second to dodge, let Sasuke and Steve infer the pause as shock from Sasuke's slightly sociopathic betrayal. When the fire was just about on him, blocking his body from sight, he made a clone. The shadow clone dodged the fire by jumping to the next roof and started yelling at Sasuke about 'just what the hell did he think he was doing?' while the real Obito escaped the fire by jumping down to the street below them.

As soon as his feet hit the ground he was running. He didn't even begin to slow down until he was a few miles away from the village.

He still didn't know what he could have done to cause Steve to come after him, and Sasuke to want to try to kill him, but he had no plans of sticking around to find out.

He did eventually have to stop to try and figure out what he was going to do. He'd have to find out what was going on, but he couldn't go back to the village to do that. Could it be bad enough to have other villages know about it? He'd know if he'd some something that bad, wouldn't he? Although, one would think he would know he did something bad enough to have Steve chasing him and Sasuke trying to –

"Madara, what have you done?" He asked, not even realizing he was speaking out loud, as realization dawned on him. Obito hadn't done anything, but he wasn't the only person who looked like him. And with everyone thinking Madara was dead, who could blame them for thinking he had done whatever it was Madara had done?

Then the goal was to find his brother. Hidden Sand village it was.

Finally, having a destination, Obito started moving again.