Chapter 5: Never Give Up
Rin finished bandaging his hand from training. He pummeled the wooden dummy with his bare fists for several hours until his knuckles bled. His girl gently chided him for over-training and not thinking of coming to her sooner, though Obito wanted to train even harder than his rival/friend or he’ll never catch up to Kakashi.

Once Rin neatly knotted the bandage on his wrist and smoothed over ointment on the bloody knuckles, Obito grinned, “Thanks a lot! I’ll be sure to rest up like you ordered, Rin.”

Rin quirked her lips into a smile, her eyes shining, “Don’t hide your wounds either, okay? Remember that. Anyway…you wanted time with just the two of us, right?”

Obito nodded energetically. “Yup! Just us!”

He looked around surreptitiously to make sure no snooping eyes or ears wandered around. He leaned forward and whispered in Rin’s ear, “D-D-Do you want to…go to the park with me?”

Rin clasped his hand. “Sure!”

Obito’s heart flip flopped, and he even ventured to hold hands. She took his hand, and Obito’s grin widened and stretched until his cheeks ached the entire way while they walked through the park.

How he longed to hold hands like this!

She did it so naturally too, just holding his hand like she belonged exclusively to him. Obito could’ve performed a triple backflip, feeling energy well up from his toes and to his head, leaving him breathless.

“So,” Obito said, his chest swelling while he accounted a particularly grueling training day. “I did 500 push-ups, 500 sit-ups, and 500 squats to warm up my body before I ran all the way across the village, to and back from the Hokage monument. I practiced my right hook on one of the training dummies…ehe… Oh! How have you been doing, Rin? Did anything new happen with you.”

“I don’t have much to report,” Rin said as she looked at him with adoring eyes. “But you know, Obito, you work really hard, and I admire that. I know that one day your dreams of becoming Hokage will happen—I will be watching you every step of the way.”

“Awh, shucks,” Obito said with a blush, greatly pleased. “Well, when I become Hokage, is t-that when…when…you’ll marry me?”

There, he said it. Then suddenly, he felt very foolish for blurting out his thoughts. He wanted to be worthy of Rin, though he didn’t voice his thoughts about her until now. Obito reddened until he was sure steam came out of his ears and whistled like a tea kettle in Saturday morning cartoons they played on television, mortified with himself, though Rin smiled and took both of his hands within her own.

“Just be yourself, Obito,” Rin said with a kind smile, as though reading his thoughts. “Don’t be afraid of being yourself. I think it’s cute when you’re acting shy and flustered. To tell you a secret…”

She then leaned forward. Obito leaned close so her lips pressed against the shell of his ear. “I’ll be waiting until you become Hokage, then.”