Scar Tissue

Chapter Eight

There were no other restaurants for sale. Obito looked through the paper that day and the next, and the next after that, and the next after *that.* No buildings he could convert into bars, either. Not and stay in the hidden village, anyway.

"Damn it," he muttered, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eye. His vision was spotty, and he hadn't had a decent night's sleep since the nightmare. Not even the drugs his doctor had supplied had helped entirely, though they kept him from remembering the dreams, at least.

"What's wrong?" Kakashi asked, sitting down opposite him. The taller man looked tired; his dark eye was rimmed with circles, and the Sharingan burned too bright. Obito had told Kakashi, the second night of terrors, that Kakashi should go stay with Gai. He hadn't.

Obito slouched lower in his chair and explained the restaurant situation.

"So buy something else. A museum," Kakashi suggested. "Or a book store."

"I *want* a *bar*," Obito shot back. "Book store," he snorted in an undertone. "You'd like that."

"So buy the building you can't go into and renovate. There must be a way to get around claustrophobia," Kakashi said blithely.

Obito flinched at the word, and glowered from under his eyebrows. "I don't see how."

Kakashi slouched in his chair, considering an apple from several angles. "Windows?"

"What shinobi wants to go to a pub with a million windows? Ninja are paranoid, remember?"

"Use one-way mirrors in them," Kakashi suggested, shrugging.

Obito hurmphed.

**

"There must be a way to get around claustrophobia," Obito said to Anko, crutching around the outside of the bar. "What about windows? Lots of windows with one-way mirrors, so we can see out but no one else can see in?"

Anko sauntered, her hands in her coat pockets. "Maybe," she said finally. "What about skylights? Opaque ones. Would they let in enough light?"

"Not opaque," Obito said, frowning. "They'd be dark at night."

Anko sighed. "Well, look, you could practically tear the place down and rebuild it out of glass, if you wanted," she pointed out. "If I were you, I'd buy it and renovate. Even if it doesn't work, it'll keep you occupied for a while, right?"

Obito laughed. "Yeah."

**

It took two months to renovate to Obito's satisfaction, though he was able to move into the back area in just three weeks. There were lights everywhere in his living quarters, and one-way glass made up most of the walls. Anko and Kurenai helped him furnish, Genma, Asuma and Raidou helped him move the furniture, and Ibiki showed up occasionally to harass them all.

Shizune brought over the first of the alcohol, when the bar was actually completed. Raidou and Asuma helped Obito polish off two bottles of sake--where he had three cups and they drank the rest--while Anko and Kurenai made margaritas and created drinks to give to Ibiki, who didn't show up--Shizune mentioned he was with Genma, something to do with a prisoner. They didn't talk about it.

It took Obito two days to clean up from their party, and he cursed all of them for not helping--but he did so smilingly. He didn't need their help, and they weren't treating him like a baby. Besides, he had friends to bitch about. It was a welcome change from the cell.

He didn't know what to expect at the grand opening of the new bar--which he laughingly named The Red Eye--but it wasn't a crowd.

"How'd all these people know to show up?" he asked Anko, who'd hopped behind the bar with him after roping Kurenai's Genin team into wait service. Kurenai was yelling at them from one corner, calling it a training mission for idiots who got themselves hurt refusing to work together.

"Oh, we might have spread the word a little," Anko said blithely, grinning from ear to ear. "No one does gossip like shinobi, and Raidou called in a few favors to make sure people at least *tried* the place, rather than dismissing it as a civilian bar."

Obito laughed, something in his chest loosening a little more. His bar was crowded. People sat at every table, most of tables packed full, and the bar was lined with men and women and--

"Is that a dog?"

"Inuzuka. They're health-certified," Anko assured him. Then she stopped mid-way through pulling a beer, and grinned slowly. "I'll be damned."

"What?" Obito asked, limited vision sweeping around to look at Anko. She nodded toward the door, and he turned to look.

Kakashi stood in the doorway looking bored. A half-dozen shinobi stood arrayed with him, bearing marking them clearly as ANBU.

"Congratulations, Obito," Anko snickered. "You're now one of the rare bars the ANBU will frequent. I'm not sure if that's a blessing or a curse," she added in an undertone.

"They might not like it," Obito said, watching with fascination as the troop slid like mist through the crowd, following the silver Copy Ninja's lead.

"Oh, come on," Anko snorted. "Ibiki helped you with the defenses, and he's head of the ANBU. They'll like it."

"You think Ibiki got them here?" Obito asked, watching as the men and women sat down at a suddenly cleared booth.

"No, I think Kakashi got them here," Anko said dryly. "You're really dense sometimes."

Obito made a face at her. She made a face back. He grinned. "This," he said slowly, "is fantastic."

--End Part One

Special Aff.net note: There are (as of this writing) 15 chapters posted on my livejournal, at jbmcdragon.livejournal.com. I will update them here over the next few days.