Chapter Text
Konan finds him first, standing by the edge of the cliff, the ocean just meters below.
Her hands are positioned elegantly against the small of her back, folding into each other. She comes up to him quietly but he smelled her ages ago.
“Madara,” the beta greets.
Obito nods once. She takes it as her cue to continue.
“Pain wishes to be updated on the progress of the hunt for the Three-Tails.”
“If he wants to know,” Obito says, “why didn’t he come to find me on his own?”
Konan is quiet.
“Deidara has been acting strangely, no?” Konan asks.
Obito shakes his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Madara,” Konan says with as much authority a beta can muster in the presence of an alpha, “you can’t play dumb with me. He’s raised some concerns.”
He turns to face her. “Concerns?” asks Obito. “What concerns?”
Konan falls quiet again. Then, she says, “About you.”
“I… see,” Obito says finally. “What did he say, explicitly?”
Obito knows that Konan will not answer him. He shakes his head again and scratches the bottom of his chin. “I will be aware of my behavior around him,” he decides to say.
Konan shakes her head lightly. “It’s way beyond that now, sir,” she says. “With all due respect, there are only two outcomes for this.”
Obito gestures for Konan to continue. “He came to me, worried,” says Konan, “but there is nothing I can do. Even I can smell it on him.”
Obito closes his eyes. He doesn’t know what to say.
“The boy was quite distressed,” Konan says. Obito looks into her sharp eyes. “It might have been hard to tell that day but it’s more prominent now. We figured it out — soon, others will too.”
Obito waves. Konan backs off. She bows and leaves him to stand alone, gazing out into the distant horizon where the sea and the sky meet.
Zetsu finds him a few hours later, still standing by the edge of the cliff.
“Hey,” says White Zetsu, “Deidara’s been looking for you.”
“It’s about the Three-Tails,” says Black Zetsu.
Obito nods and dismisses Zetsu. He disappears into the soil and Obito stands, listening to the sound of the crashing waves, then he too disappears.
He finds Deidara crouched on top of a tree.
“Senpai,” Tobi greets.
“Shh,” Deidara shushes, waving at him. Tobi crouches down beside him.
“What are we looking at?” he asks Deidara in a hushed tone.
Deidara doesn’t answer him. He just points at the two Kiri ninja standing on a tree just below them.
“It’s hiding in here, huh?” one of them says.
“In the lake,” replies the other. “You’d think it would choose somewhere else to be.”
“It’s a giant turtle thing,” says the first one. “What do you expect?”
Deidara glances at Tobi. Obito nods.
He watches as Deidara makes a few small spider bombs, animating them and letting crawl toward the two ninjas. Neither of them take much note of the bombs. Only one of them makes a half-hearted attempt at swatting the spider away.
The bombs crawl up to their necks and with a single command, they go off. The ninjas fall from the tree, dead before they even hit the ground.
“Good job, senpai,” Tobi says.
Deidara grunts.
They head over to the lake. To neither of their surprise, the place is crawling with Kirigakure ninjas. Deidara gestures to the ones who are clearly of a higher ranking and Tobi nods.
He gets ready to help Deidara take them down but he stops when he senses a platoon rapidly approaching.
“Senpai,” Tobi warns. “Konohagakure shinobi, five o’clock.”
Deidara nods. He shoves his hands into his pocket and tosses some bombs at Tobi. Tobi takes the bombs and heads toward the Konoha nin.
They don’t sense him. He tosses Deidara’s bombs at them from above and the moment they make contact with them, the bombs explode. Tobi heads back to Deidara and nods when Deidara gives him a questioning look.
Tobi finds Deidara has taken care of another group of ninja. He kicks the corpse out of his way and then looks when Deidara gestures to the other group.
“They’re stronger,” Deidara comments. “They also have more lightning-types.”
“Hm,” Tobi taps at his chin.
“Do you know what to do, yeah?”
Tobi nods. “I’ll try,” he says.
He hops off the tree and burrows into the ground. Tobi reappears beneath the platoon and drags two in with him. The other members scramble to help their teammate and shout intelligible orders at each other.
Once disorientated and Tobi safe underground, Deidara tosses bombs at them from the air. It takes out half the group and Tobi deals with the rest, sealing them beneath the earth. Tobi pokes his head out to make sure the road is clear.
Deidara stands beside Tobi’s exposed head, peering down at him.
“Hello, senpai!” Tobi says.
“Hm,” Deidara grunts and walks away.
Obito rolls his eyes. He hoists himself out of the ground and brushes soil off of his cloak, following Deidara to the lake.
Looking up, Tobi stops in his tracks when another person’s scent fills his nose. Obito tenses.
Deidara is nervous, a sour taste in the air, as he stares down the other man – another alpha – who is keeping him in place with a chakra-charged kunai.
This alpha is young, probably fresh off his first rut. He looks to be about Deidara’s age, probably twenty, and he smells wretched.
Well, wretched to Obito. He can’t help the small growl emitting from his throat.
The other alpha doesn’t even spare him a glance.
“You’re not mated, are you?” the man asks. He doesn’t wait for Deidara to answer as he continues to speak, “You don’t smell like you are, even if I can smell him on you.”
Obito takes a step forward.
“Easy, old man,” the alpha says, finally turning to Obito. “I hope you understand that the omega is fair game since he’s at the cusp of his heat and he’s not been claimed.”
He hears Deidara huff and his gaze is heavy on him. Obito takes another step forward.
The other alpha bares his teeth, his sharpened canines glinting in the light. “Are you challenging me?” he demands.
Obito breathes out slowly. “No,” he says afterward.
“No?”
“You’re challenging me.”
The man laughs. “Don’t make me laugh, old man,” he says, “I asked first.”
“Did he say he was interested?”
“I don’t need to hear him say it,” the man grins. “Omegas let you know by smell.”
Deidara grunts and Obito can taste his anger. “Doesn’t smell like he’s interested,” Obito says.
“Not interested in you,” the other alpha replies. He lowers his kunai and begins to stalk, prowling and showing Obito his teeth. A clear challenge.
“Find someone your own age, old man,” taunts the other alpha. “This omega is mine.”
“No, he isn’t,” growls Obito.
“Are you challenging me?” he demands again.
Obito glances at Deidara. Deidara says nothing. He turns back to the other alpha and sets his jaw straight.
“Yes,” Obito grits out.
“Then so be it.”
The other alpha lungs without another word. Obito quickly disarms him of his weapon and it clatters on the ground with a dull sound. Momentarily distracted, Obito uses the opening to land a few punches at the other’s jaw.
The other alpha stumbles back with a grunt, but he is young and healthy, and he quickly regains his composure. Obito finds himself toppled over and lying on the dirt ground, struggling to breathe.
Obito grips the other man’s wrist, twisting it hard and hearing it snap before the man lets out a howl. He shoves the other man off him, and he lands on his side, his arm below the elbow jutting out at a weird angle.
He looks down at him, chest heaving as he tries to steady his breathing. He is aware of Deidara’s eyes on him, the other hasn’t moved at all. Obito lets the other man sob for a while longer before he punches his face again and again until the sickening sound of skin against skin becomes wetter and wetter, and the man is no longer screaming in pain but gurgling.
Obito stops when pain begins to blossom against his knuckles. He loosens his fist and gives it a few swings, droplets of blood flinging onto his cloak and his mask. Obito grunts at that.
Then, he reaches, and grabs hold of the man’s head in both hands. He looks at him in the eyes, taking in how blood-shot it is, and says, “You lose, boy. Don’t take what’s mine.”
Anger flashes across the man’s eyes but it is too late. Obito grips his head tight and twists. The sound of bone and tendons and nerves severing makes Obito feel sick but he has no other choice. The man’s body gives a final jerk and stills completely.
Obito stands. He kicks some dirt at the dead body and snarls at it once more before turning back to his partner.
Even from here, reeking with the smell of blood and sweat and dirt, Obito can smell him. He smells so sweet, so good, so delicious.
Obito lets out a shaky breath, unsure of what to say. Deidara’s mouth opens and closes. Obito notices that his pupils are blown, and his skin is flushed.
He should feel pleased. The omega is responding to him and accepting his claim – but he finds that he cannot. He wars with himself, arms twitching at his sides. He wants to go to him but Obito knows he cannot – he should not.
He is supposed to control himself around Deidara.
Deidara smells so wonderful.
“Tobi…” Deidara says but it doesn’t sound like Deidara. It sounds strange and forced and Deidara’s eyes are wide. He takes a step toward Obito.
“Wait,” Obito says, holding up his hands.
Deidara obeys.
“That guy... He said something about you being in the cusp of your heat.”
Deidara nods.
“But… I thought you…”
Deidara shakes his head and Obito quickly gestures, saying, “Your pills.”
He watches Deidara takes out the nearly empty box and swallow two in quick succession. The smell of him dampens a little but his scent is still there, just below the surface.
Deidara shakes his head again and tosses away the empty box.
Obito swallows thickly, stifling a groan, and takes a step back. His hands are still up as if that can stop what’s forming between them. “We have a mission to do,” he forces himself to say.
Deidara closes his eyes, turns away, and stares out at the lake. Mutely, he nods.
They stand in silence for a long time — Deidara looks at the water and Obito looks at Deidara.
“I…” Obito begins but he trails off. He licks his suddenly dry lips and tries again, “I think I’ll do this alone.”
Deidara snaps his head back at him. Through the haze of hormones, it is reassuring to see that Deidara’s personality hasn’t completely disappeared.
“Don’t worry, senpai,” Tobi says, falsely cheerful, “I’ll tell them that you did it all on your own.”