an·ger
/ˈaNGɡər/: a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility.
"the colonel's anger at his daughter's disobedience." (Oxford Languages.)

You couldn't sleep.
Not after what Sasuke said to you.
Not after Karin helped you to your bedroom and whispered kind and positive phrases of affirmations to your ear.
Not after Suigetsu entered your bedroom to check on you, 30 minutes after Sasuke's violent outburst towards you.
Not after Juugo whispered goodnight to you from the hallway before heading to his room for the rest of the dark, freezing night.

You couldn't sleep and you felt like you would never be able to sleep until you got answers. You ran outside to the cold of the night and silently begged the cold, wintertime winds for answers.
Who was the masked man? If he was not Madara Uchiha then what was the name of the man you were so in love with?

You felt a strong arm around you as he sat next to you on a high tree branch. The masked man's attempts to keep you warm brought you a sense of comfort and a feeling of being loved, yet Sasuke's words still haunted your mind. His words like little spiders crawling inside your ears, into your mind causing you a feeling of discomfort and insecurity at the masked man's touch.

"You'll freeze to death out here." He tenderly placed his head on your shoulder, wanting to be affectionate with you. Attempting to keep you warm, even though he was aware that you had not been out long enough to freeze to death. He kept a constant eye on you after all.

"Then I'll go inside." You kept your tone firm as well as simple, and as you walked towards the cabin that was considered Team Taka's hideout, you didn't dare to look back at the masked man. Out of your peripheral vision, you saw that he was wearing that spiral, bright-orange, one-eyed mask, so seeing his expression was out of the question.

"What's wrong?" It felt like hours yet it had only been a few minutes when he teleported in your bedroom. He lay down on your bed next to you, and his gloved hands caressed your back as you gave him your back. "You know we don't keep secrets from each other..."

"Sasuke said something..." You refused to face him as his touch made you feel even more uncomfortable. At that point, Sasuke's spiders of doubt had melted in your brain, becoming a part of you. A thought that you could not shake away until you got answers. You were convinced that the man laying next to you, touching your back was not Madara Uchiha but a mere stranger. Someone who had lied to you regarding his identity and his reasons for lying were unknown to you. There was no reason to lie....at least not to you.

Obito partly removed his masked and kissed the back of your neck and shoulder. Upon hearing your response, your distant attitude made sense. The two of you were very close, in love, so he was aware that your relationship with Sasuke was not the best. "What did Sasuke say?"

"He said something about you..."

Obito's kisses came to a stop at your response. He did not like the way Sasuke treated you, and was aware that almost every interaction between you and Itachi's younger brother were always negative and intense. "What did he say about me...?" Curiosity got the best of him. What would Sasuke have to say to you regarding himself?

"Never mind..." The phrase escaped from your mouth. You hadn't realized how uncomfortable, nervous, and scared of confronting him you had been until that moment. "I can't seem to remember anymore."

Your withdrawn tone was foreign to him, but he accepted your response. He continued to kiss the back of your neck until he spotted dark bruises against your skin. "What happened?" He wanted to remove his mask to see clearly, yet he did the opposite and put it completely back on. "What happened to your neck, y/n?"

You stared at the wooden bedroom wall a few inches from your face feeling your mind go black. Sasuke must have left bruises from where he choked you.

"Y/N." His tone of voice raised as he forced your on your back and locked eyes with him. "What happened to your neck?" Your attitude seemed off, and your silence was starting to bother him. You two trusted each other and told each other everything... why weren't you answering his question?

His tone scared you and as you adverted your gaze, he grabbed your jaw, forcing eye contact again. "Tell me."

"Sasuke got mad at me and choked me." As soon as that phrase escaped your mouth, Obito was on his feet. "Wait! Don't go talk to him!" You ran after him and stopped him before he could reach your bedroom door.

"He needs to be taught a lesson." Obito was furious. He was tired of Sasuke treating you horrible and making you upset, but Sasuke laying a finger on you crossed the line. He was determined to go to the Uchiha. The promise he had made to Itachi regarding not hurting Sasuke did not mean anything anymore.

"No, don't! " Team Taka was your family, and you didn't want anybody or anything to hurt them, despite your dislike for Sasuke. You only had Team Taka, and the other members only had Team Taka. Despite the fact that Sasuke never liked you, he cared about you and the other members. Team Taka was always there for each other. "Don't hurt him...please..."

Obito cared for you deeply and the thought of Sasuke hurting you angered him. However, it was rare whenever you raised your voice at him. It was so unlike you to disagree with him to the point of raising your voice at him. Obito could tell by your worried eyes and the way you held onto his arms, nails almost digging into his skin, that you didn't want him to hurt Sasuke. And if that was your wish, he would respect it. "I won't...but at least tell me what made him dare to lay a hand on you..."

"We were arguing...."

"About?"

"You..."

The conversation returned to your and Obito's original topic of discussion. His eye had adjusted to the obscurity, and despite the darkness of the room, his sharingan could clearly see the bruises on your neck."What did Sasuke say about me?" And he watched you advert your gaze from his once again and fall silence. "Fine. I'll ask him myself."

"Wait!" Your eyes locked with his again. The silence felt endless and when you finally spoke again, your eyes were glued to your bedroom's door. "He said you're not Madara Uchiha."

"And you believe him?" His response was quick and he stared at you trying to figure out your thoughts, though you avoiding eye contact made it difficult for him. It was the first time you questioned him regarding that. You were very trusting overall, but your silence made your bedroom appeared darker and colder by the second.

"Why do you wear a mask?" The questions escaped from your lips as avoiding eye contact made it easier for you to ask.

"I don't want to reveal my identity to anyone who I don't need to...doing that would only interfere with my plans..." His answered was calculated yet his tone revealed that he felt hurt. It was as if you betrayed him. It was so unlike you to doubt him.

"But why do you wear it around us....?You already told us your name-"

"I'll talk to Sasuke regarding his doubts." Obito quickly changed the conversation. It was a scenario that he had been trained to answer years ago by Madara, yet he didn't expect to have this conversation with you.

"Don't...he's just stressed. He didn't have paternal figures growing up." Your attention quickly shifted to stopping Obito from confronting Sasuke. You cared for both of them and didn't want an altercation to occur...especially not in the middle of the night.

"No paternal figures?" Obito felt himself roll his eye. Growing up, he didn't have paternal figures or people that cared for him, yet he never behaved like a brat just like Sasuke.

"Now that I remember ...actually he did." You placed your finger on your lip remembering. "His sensei Kakashi. Sasuke had shared with us that while he was still living in Konoha his sensei Kakashi talked to him when he was sad and showed him jutsus. He's a great man."

"Kakashi?" Obito's night couldn't get any worse. First you doubted his word and now you were praising Kakashi. Out of all the people, you were praising Kakashi??

"Yes. Kakashi, the copy cat ninja. Have you heard of him?" You turned to look at Obito as his sudden change of tone had surprised you. "I've heard that he's a great ninja. I've only met him once and it was when Team Taka snuck in Konoha to buy food from the village. We locked eyes while I was walking with Karin and he smiled and waved at us-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

His sudden outburst scared you. He had never talked to you that way and you've never seen him that agitated. He was always kind and loving towards you.

He quickly realized his mistake. "I don't know who he is-"

You felt him rubbed your arms with his gloved-covered hands and he led you back to your bed. As you lay on your back with him on top of you kissing your neck, your stomach began to hurt. Sasuke's words and his sudden outburst over someone he did not know really scared you. You were truly convinced that on top of you was a mere stranger to you, and the thought of that made you want to scream.

His mask was partly removed. It always was when you two kissed in private, but you've never felt tempted, until now, to just remove it when he least expected it. Your hands lightly stroked his muscular arms, slowly traveling under his sleeves, anything to know more about him without it being too obvious. It was as if the texture from his right arm felt different from the left, but you weren't sure. The room was too dark and maybe you were overthinking. "Take off your gloves."

It wasn't the first time you felt his bare hands on yours, but your request caught him off guard after he snapped at you for talking about his old teammate. Regardless, he removed his gloves, and you caressed his hands, as if they could answer all of your questions regarding his identity and change of attitude.

While you felt yourself sinking into a sea of doubt, his lips were again against your neck, his chest and body on top of yours.

"I love you." He whispered in your ear and you stomach turned as the only things you wanted to do was push him off you and take off his mask.

Your hands caressed his back, and you caught a glimpse of his partially exposed face out of the corner of your eye. The more your eyes attempted to adjust to the darkness, the darker the room became.

Your hand then reached towards his face and took off his mask. You didn't have time to understand what you did because it happened so quickly. He had already adjusted his mask, had a tight grip on your wrist, and you were whimpering in pain attempting to get free from his grip by the time you realized the consequences of your actions.

"Y/N..." his voice sounded hurt. Like if you had just betrayed him. He believed there had been trust, love, and no secrets or deception in his relationship with you over the last few months. With the exception of him lying to everyone, including you, about his identity, he had no secrets from you. He kept his true identity hidden from you not because he didn't love you, but because he was worried that if he told you the truth, he would put your life in danger. He couldn't bear losing someone he loved once again. If it happened, he would lose his mind... he would kill himself.

"Why can't I see your face?" Your hand reached to caress his face but he pulled away, getting completely off you. His gesture hurt you, and the room grew tense again. "Do you have a scar? I wouldn't judge you-"

He knew you wouldn't judge him, yet he struggled to speak. His mind pondered on whether he should be truthful to you.

"W-Where are you going??"
He didn't even notice he was walking away from you, until he felt you holding his arm as an attempt to stop him from reaching the door and exiting your bedroom.

"I'm sorry." Him turning to look at you made you let go of his arm. "I just thought that we didn't keep secrets from each other." You remembered what he always told you. And it was true. You truly felt that the relationship you had with him was transparent with the exception of him showing you his face and his relationship with the name Rin.

"You are right." He took a step away from you. "I haven't been honest with you."

You took a deep breath as you felt as if a weight have been lifted off your shoulders. Although the doubt had been eating you up inside, you didn't actually expect him to admit to it. You reached for his hands, willing to talk things out with him and try your best to be understanding. However he pulled his hands away from you.

"It's best if we end our relationship, y/n."

"What?" It took a moment to process what he had said and by the time he repeated it, you were sitting on your bed holding back tears. "Is it because I know that you lied about your identity?"

"Yes."

"Then who are you-"

"I can't tell you." He began to walk away, but your emotions got the better of you.

"Then who are you??!!" Your tone of voice raised to the point that you were sure that you heard movement coming from the bedrooms of your comrades. "I deserve to know..." your voice quickly became a whisper. Team Taka members didn't deserve to be awaken in the middle of the night.

As an attempt to calm your emotions you hid your hands, that were shaking, behind your back. You didn't want the man....the masked stranger in front of you to know just how much his deception had affected you. Yet, it was expected. You had been in a romantic relationship with that man; a man who was kind, respectful, affectionate, but turns out he wasn't who he said he was.

"I am no one and I wish to be nobody." He looked down at you feeling his body become tense. He loved you and it hurt him to see that the words he just said brought tears to your eyes. You've been nothing but sweet and a ray on sunshine in his miserable life. "It was never my intention to hurt you. Stay strong."

By the time you looked up from the floor, he had completely teleported away leaving his gloves behind.

You didn't realized how much anger you felt until you felt a knot in your throat as you entered Karin's dark bedroom. "Karin..."

"Y/N! Are you okay??" The redhead readjusted herself in her bed and reached for her glasses that were resting in her nightstand. "I heard everything."

"He's not really Madara." Your eyes adjusted to the darkness of her bedroom and saw her sitting down in bed with Sasuke half asleep laying next to her. "You were right, Sasuke. He lied to us....to me."

"Mhm." Was all the Uchiha said as he sleepily sat on Karin's bed and rubbed his eyes trying to adjust to the darkness. "Now we have another reason not to trust him and not join the war."

"Come lay with us..." Karin signaled you towards her bed and you obeyed holding back tears. You knew that if you went back to your bedroom, the masked man would return from his gloves at any moment.
"Sasuke-kun...maybe you should sleep in your room tonight. I need to talk to y/n about something."

Sasuke glared at you as he got out of Karin's bed and walked into the hallway. It was no secret to the members of Team Taka that the Uchiha hated sleeping alone as his nightmares regarding his clan's massacre haunted him. Sleeping next to someone always allowed him to have a nightmare-free, goodnight sleep.

You gave Karin your back and allowed tears to escape as she tried to comfort you with positive phrases.

"You shouldn't cry so much, y/n." She whispered. "Sasuke told me that Suigetsu told him that Kabuto attached a snake to his own body because he felt lonely. What if he thinks you're lonely and attaches a snake on yours?"

The thought of Kabuto attaching a snake to your body made you both giggle and cry.

"Are you going to take him back?" The giggles faded and Karin's question caused tension in her room once again.

"Sasuke-kun ???! What are you doing in my room??" Before you could answer Karin's question, Suigetsu's surprised voice could be heard throughout the hideout.

Both you and Karin giggled at the fact that Sasuke rather sleep with Suigetsu than faced his nightmares alone in his own bedroom. However, after you two stopped giggling and Karin fell asleep, you were once again alone with your own thoughts.

Anger and anxiety consumed you as you replayed the conversation you had with the masked man in your head. You loved him, yet he lied to you. Did the man you fell in love with existed at all? You pondered Karin's question on wether you would take him back if he returned to you.