"They're inside. Are you ready?"

"Ready enough."

"Good. Now judge them."

I don't know how he planned this. I don't know why he wants to avenge my friend.
But one thing I know.

Justice will be served.

It all started a few weeks ago with an unusual phone call.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Kakashi, turn on the channel four news. Don't wait, do it now."

"How come?"

"Just do it, alright?"

'... the fourteen year-old was last seen at school on Tuesday. Police are asking you help in finding him. If you have information that could lead to his whereabouts, we urge you to call the police.'

My eyes widened just a fraction.

"No way... Iruka's gone missing? This is terrible. Especially after... You know, with Hayate."

"This may be just a hunch, but you want to know what I think?"

I sighted, this again?

"Don't tell me-- they're connected, right? You and your conspiracies."

"Just hear me out," he begged.

"They didn't really know each other. They didn't really like each other. Aside from being in the same school, they only had one thing in common.

They both dated the same Senpai."

"So you think she did it?"

"Not at all."

"Then who?"

"If you ask me, I think we have a Yandere on the loose."

"Get real. You've been watching too much anime."

"Well, who's he dating now?"

"Asuma, from homeroom. My friend."

The next moment I understood what he was hinting at.

"You better not be saying what I think you're saying!"

"I'm not saying anything."

"Well, stop playing detective. It's getting tasteless," I said with venom in my voice.

That was Thursday night. The night before...

Asuma died.

The police say he drowned accidentally. He was home alone, slipped off the diving board, and that was it.
No one was around to see him.
No one was around to save him.

"I heard about Asuma. Just let me say--"

"No more conspiracy stuff!!! You really are tasteless!!"

I made a move to grab ahold of the collar of his school uniform and choke him, but he narrowly avoided it.

"No... It's not that at all.
Look, I'm sorry about Asuma, and I'm sorry for being insensitive.
If there's anything I can ever do...

... Well, you know." He sounded apologetic, and I felt a pang of guilt.

"Wait! I'm sorry too! I know you're trying to figure things out. You just have an odd way of doing it.
While the rest of us sort through our grief you look for some purpose, some explanation.
But there is no purpose.
There is no explanation.
What happened happened, and it's just the way it is."

"Maybe...

But I don't think so.
If there was a chance, even a remote possibility, his death was more than an accident, wouldn't you want to know?"

Crazy boy. I don't know why I listened, but if he was right, at least I could say Asuma died for a reason. And that's all I really wanted.
A reason.

I thought about it for a while. Brushed it off as nonsense.
But then something caught my attention.
These two boys started hanging out with Senpai.

Asuma's senpai.

They where nice enough, but I didn't like them for a second. The flirting, the laughing, the stupid, bubbly laughs...

They made me sick.

And that's not all. One night, my friend brought me to his house to show me a recording he made at school. A convention in the boys locker room.
These two voices said cruel, terrible things about Asuma. Then there was laughter. Sick, twisted laughter. That's when I realized...

'That was wickedly fun!'

'And remember what we did next? Ahahahahaha!'

... It was those boys.

How he got it, I don't know. I don't really care, either. All I know is they did it.

They killed Asuma, and possibly the others, all over a stupid girl.

"Oh Kami... We have to tell the police!"

"Don't do that."

Why was he backing out now? Wasn't he the one who showed me the recording? Wasn't he the one who wanted to solve this mystery in the first place?!

"Why not?"

"We can't trust the system. Besides, jail is too good for them.
Nothing short of revenge will meet the demands of justice."

"Revenge? Are you insane?"

"Two weeks ago, those boys killed Asuma for entirely selfish reasons, and the police had no clue.
Worse yet, even if they did, they'd go free after a little bit of jail time.
That's the real insanity here.

Do the police care about your friendship?

No. For them, it's all about a system, it's all about the lawS

But the law is too weak to do what needs to be done."

"But we can't go above the law! It's not right!"

"Not right? NOT RIGHT?!
You listen to me, and you listen well. In justice, there's only one law that matters-- Lex Talionis!
'An eye for an eye,
A tooth for a tooth,
A foot for a foot,
A life for a life.'
You think that's too hard? You think that's not right? That the problem.
You want justice, but you're too scared to see it trough. Now that you know the truth, you can't just walk away. We're the only ones who understand. We're the only ones who can bring about justice.
You have to avenge Asuma, and if you don't...

... Whatever would he think?"

He was right, whatever would Asuma think? I had to do something.

"Heh, you were right. This whole time you where right, and I was too scared to see it. I would have done anything to avoid the truth, but you were right. Fine then.
I'm not walking away. Im ready to see this through."

The plan was simple. Go to school. Do nothing out of the ordinary. Just wait for the signal. An then...

"What are you doing?!"

"Ahhhh!"

"Are you insane?!"

... Blood.

"Good work."

"How are we going to clean this? I still don't want to get caught."

"Don't worry, nobody's getting caught."

He grabbed my hand...

"What are you--"

... And plunged it, and the knife it held, through my stomach.

"This can't be..."

My vision was darkening rapidly.

"... Happening..."

✾ - ✾ - ✾ - ✾ - ✾ - ✾ - ✾ - ✾

'Ding dong'

Kakashi was right, there's a yandere on the loose. But it wasn't them.

It was me.

Nobody gets in the way of me and my senpai.

Not Hayate.

Not Iruka.

And definitely not Asuma.

It would have been suspicious for them to keep disappearing, so this time, there had to be someone to take the blame.
That turned out to be Kakashi.

It'll make perfect sense. Distraught over his friends death, he took it upon himself to carry out imaginary justice. Then took his own life.

A classic murder-suicide.

In his state of mind, convincing him was easy. As for the phony evidence...

Bits and pieces of phone conversations I put together on a computer.
How did I get those conversations? I have my ways.
And the signal? A perfectly innocuous text message.

He knew ahead of time where to go, what to do, and mor importantly, what not to do. If he followed my instructions, exactly, the world will be none the wiser.

I'll have to be more careful, that means no more killing for a while. I'll just have to remain in the shadows, manipulating, like I have always done. To keep her for myself. Still, an "accident" every now and then wouldn't hurt.

Whatever it takes to get Nohara-senpai, I - Obito Uchiha- will not hesitate to do.