Third person pov

The lights in the diner buzzed overhead quietly, creating an almost white noise that settled over Ethelia like a heavy fog. She felt tired and near heavy as she sat there, staring aimlessly at the menu. Team Minato was trying their best to act as normal as possible, but Ethelia could see how absolutely forced it was. Kakashi was the only one not attempting to fabricate a cheerful discussion, instead sitting back and grimacing at the pitiful sight of his teammates trying too hard. Ethelia could relate.

"I think the weather is going to be good this week! We should take some more outdoor missions." Rin chirped, glancing at Ethelia from the corner of her eye as though to check for any signs that she'd blow up. Ethelia stared blandly back. She could almost feel the bags under her eyes deepening. Had going out with the team always been this exhausting?

"Or we could just take it slow." Obito suggested in contrast, flipping through his menu thoughtfully. "No need to spook the horse on this one!"

"Did you just call Ethelia a horse?" Kakashi questioned, his nose scrunching up in both distaste and confusion. Obito froze. Rin did as well.

"I think he did." Ethelia responded dryly. Obito sputtered.

"That's not what I meant!" Obito cried out. "I just— Everything is a mess right now! It's my job to—"

He cut himself off a second time, clamping his mouth shut. Right, Ethelia's dad's letter. He didn't want to reveal what was in it if she wasn't ready. It had been addressed to him, and he wasn't confident it was something he should share. Especially not right now. Ethelia was in a fragile state. Anything could send her tumbling over the edge of the cliff she was teetering on. It was the last thing Obito wanted to happen. He wanted to see Ethelia live and thrive! Not fall down and not get back up.

"Calm down, everyone. We just need to take this a step at a time." Minato smiled. Ethelia rose an eyebrow at him. Seriously, how did he do that? He always looked happy. There was no way he wasn't feeling some shred of annoyance right now. Ethelia needed to learn how to mask herself like that. "At the first step is going to be to eat!"

"Oh, goody. I couldn't tell." Ethelia responded in a bland tone before dropping her gaze to her menu so she could actually pick something rather than just staring blankly. The idea of eating a full meal right now sounded disgusting. The mere idea made her nauseous. But alas, she had to eat eventually. She was no idiot. This was her body's response to grief. Just because she didn't feel like doing something didn't mean she didn't need to do it.

"The sarcasm isn't needed." Obito said, but he wasn't being serious. Ethelia could feel him testing the waters with the comment. Was she capable of joking around right now? Probably not, but it wasn't going to stop her from making a comeback nonetheless. In the midsts of a crisis or not, she would defend her sarcastic ways.

"It's never needed, Obito." Ethelia sighed, eyes scanning the menu. She could probably do something plain. Like a rice ball, maybe. Or just a bowl of it, perhaps? "You know what else isn't needed?"

They all stared at her. Even Kakashi seemed taken aback by her ability to form coherent sentences, let alone roasts. Ethelia didn't make the rules. She just existed. Which honestly, being alive right now was sort of ass. She missed her dad already. It was hard to think about the fact that she wouldn't ever be able to go home to him again. No more bantering about pudding, and no more late night dinners made out of the odds and ends they found in the fridge. He was just... gone.

"...What else isn't needed?" Rin asked after a moment when Ethelia didn't say anything else. Ethelia looked directly at Obito.

"Your opinion." She said to the Uchiha boy. Obito grinned.

Kakashi watched this exchange with great interest. He knew what it was like to have a parent take the easy way out. He could recall the overwhelming rage he'd felt towards his own father when he realized what had happened. Even now, he still felt angry that his father had broke the rules and then left Kakashi behind to deal with the consequences. How was Ethelia staying so calm? She was upset by the loss, and clearly very shaken, but she didn't seem mad.

Obito continued to gently guide the conversation with more tact than any of them realized he possessed. He tip toed, but not lightly enough to piss Ethelia off and make her snap at him. He knew when to lighten up and when not to. Right now, he was pressing a bit more. Exchanging "quips" with her, which was code for him trying to talk to Ethelia while she insulted him. Minato-sensei seemed to find it extremely amusing, as he kept snickering to himself. Kakashi didn't see the humor in it. Even if some of Ethelia's comebacks were decent.

A waitress came by with their drinks and then whisked away their orders. Now, don't get Kakashi wrong here. He honest to God could care less about anything to do with his teammates that wasn't mission related. But with that being said, there were some things that were impossible to miss. One of these said things being Ethelia's love for food. Yes, food. It wasn't hard to take note of when all she did was talk about how hungry she was. Which is why her ordering plain rice was so weird.

Obito took note of it we well, frowning. Ethelia loved food. She and once told him that she could be dying of a deathly disease that made eating incredibly excruciating, and that she'd still down a large order of fries. She wasn't shy about her love for eating. She had all but asked him to marry her last time he brought her breakfast. Before... well, all this. Seeing her deduced to a rice eating lump of depression made his heart hurt in ways he didn't realize it could.

Ethelia could feel the judgement and concern radiating off her teammates as she placed her order, but found herself too tired to care. She knew they were worried. She would be too if she were in their shoes. That didn't mean she had to enjoy their staring. God, even Kakashi was giving her a look. Was she really that bad right now?

Ethelia took a deep breath to placate herself. She had to get herself together. Yes, the wound was still fresh. That was a fact. Yes, she was grieving. Another fact, and also okay. She knew it was normal to be upset. But as soul-crushing as this was, she couldn't let it hold her back. It sounded selfish and maybe even a bit shallow to think that. Anyone who didn't know her well enough may even venture to say that she didn't care about her dad. They'd be idiots to assume such.

Ethelia's dad had been everything to her. Her best friend, a shoulder to cry on— someone she could rely on to be there. He'd worked his ass off just so they could get along nicely in their home. They didn't have a lot of money or anything like that, but they got by without issues. If Ethelia wanted a few bags of chips from the store, it wasn't a struggle to fit it into the budget. The bills were always paid right on time, and the house was in decent condition. They hadn't lived luxuriously, but they'd been comfortable.

Her dad had made that all possible. She could see him grow wearier as the days wore on, and more tired as his overtime started to catch up to him. So when Minato came looking for her and found out about her chakra, and she realized she could get paid for doing this, of course she'd said yes! They'd only continue to pester her had she said no, and why not do the inevitable for some extra cash? Anything to alleviate the pressure her dad underwent for her.

It had been helping. Her dad had seemed brighter for a while. He was less tired, and she could start to see the life come back into him. They'd been happy. He had always been somewhat against ninja. He didn't hate them, but he didn't like that they brought children into the field at such a young age. Ethelia had been told time and time again that she could never be one. That it was too dangerous, and that he didn't want to see her hurt. She'd always nodded along, because he wasn't wrong. Being a ninja was sort of fucked up.

Then he'd found out she now was one. That she'd been training and had a massive amount of chakra that could blow massive trees out of the ground and create craters! He'd lost both his jobs and took up copious drinking. She'd seen him knock one or two back in the past, but this was a new and near dangerous level of intoxication that had admittedly terrified her. She hadn't been ready to tell him. This wouldn't have happened if that asshole hadn't—

Right. Ryuki.

"Ethelia?" Obito asked, snapping her from her train of thought. She blinked. When had the food gotten here? "Are you going to eat?"

She stared at her food for a moment, thinking hard about her dad. He'd been upset and struggling to cope, but he wouldn't abandon her out of the blue like that. Had Ryuki said something else that night? On top of telling her dad she was becoming a ninja, what else had he done?

"Yeah." Ethelia blinked. Ryuki Taki... She suddenly felt extremely hungry, and extremely determined. Oh, and relatively pissed too. "Actually, can I steal some of your orange chicken?"

Obito shoved over half into her bowl. She appreciated it.