Chapter 129: Fatal Temptation
The chakra network was a dream given shape.
Built on the principles of the Moon Dream, it formed a second world woven from endless chakra and thought, stretched like a net across the sky.
In that sense, this seemingly solid space was both real and unreal.
Real, because the people within it were real, their emotions genuine, their clashes and bonds no less true than those on the ground.
Unreal, because their identities could never be fully confirmed, their words and actions never completely proven.
Compared to staring someone in the eye in the physical world, this way of understanding others was hazy and strange, a newborn thing in the ninja era.
From Obito's shallow grasp of such things, one fact remained clear. He had never, not once, seen anyone freeze the entire network.
Yet now, the instant the old man appeared before him, everything halted.
Kakashi and Rin's duel, the howling shockwaves, the oppressive spiritual pressure, the network's endless hum, all vanished. It was as if they had never existed, as if the whole world were simply holding its breath, quietly waiting on what would happen next.
For Obito, it was nothing short of terrifying. He had never imagined anyone could do this inside the chakra network.
In official explanations and propaganda, the chakra network was Konoha's crowning technological jewel. Among the abilities purchased for one trillion ryo back then, the network and the Intelligence Core had become the main pillars of development, both safe and efficient.
So for the entire structure to freeze, leaving only himself and this old man capable of movement, was so far beyond Obito's imagination that he could only stare, mind blank, and force out a single line.
"Time… stopped?"
"No," the old man answered, voice dry. "It is that Aizen theory. Relativization of thought. Our thinking speed has been accelerated. The result looks like time stopping inside the network."
"Eh? What does that even mean?"
"It is not that they have slowed down," the old man said impatiently, "it is that we are too fast. In comparison, they are practically motionless."
He coughed into his hand, then glanced sidelong at Obito's stunned face and gave a faint, mocking smile.
"As for how I can do this, it is simple. I personally designed the underlying structure of the chakra network. Why do you think I would not be able to do this much?"
"…"
Obito felt like his brain had overheated.
Today, too many things had happened that he did not understand. They had crashed down one after another until his thoughts almost stalled.
Kakashi, whom he had not seen in three years, reappeared only to stand above him as an exam proctor.
After finally reuniting with him and Rin, he then watched Rin throw herself straight into Kakashi's arms.
When he tried to measure the gap between them, that difference nearly crushed him. Even Rin, whom he had always thought of as "one of the strong ones," now felt like an existence on a completely different level.
Even so, she still faced Kakashi with the same feelings as always. Kakashi, for his part, was absurdly strong, and yet even he could not ignore the rules of Las Noches.
Layer after layer of reality, wave after wave of pressure, had already begun to numb Obito the moment Kakashi and Rin started their fight.
Then an old man appeared out of nowhere, spoke casually, stepped out of thin air, and froze the world.
At that point, Obito seriously wondered if he had fallen into some ridiculous dream.
This kind of development only happened in dreams. Otherwise, why would so many impossible things pile up in one afternoon?
Yet no matter how much he circulated chakra to clear his head, no matter how he tried to find the slightest trace of genjutsu, he found nothing.
Everything he saw was real.
Rin was real. Kakashi was real. Their feelings were real.
The girl you like not liking you back was normal. You were simply not from the same world. Realizing that and still being helpless, still having your heart crushed, was also normal.
"…Kid, did you forget I am still here?"
The old man's dry voice snapped him out of it. Obito, still in his goggles, had unconsciously started to crouch as if he were about to cry.
The old man was Uchiha Madara.
Developer of the Moon Dream, creator of Infinite Tsukuyomi, the one who had chosen to become a god on earth by controlling everyone's dreams and selecting the worthy to build a new world.
For someone like him, having partial authority over the chakra network's very foundations was only natural.
Just as Minato had a developer mode inside Konoha that let him trace chakra signatures in detail, Madara could do the same inside the network. This entire system had become the greatest source of inspiration for his dream of becoming a god.
As a developer, he simply held permissions that ordinary users did not.
The signal towers created by Sunagakure had been intended to counter the Moon Dream, yet in the end they were still built on its theory. It was likely that not only Madara, but Aizen, Orochimaru, Danzo, Rasa, and even the other great villages could do similar things with the network if they really wanted.
They just had no reason to bother.
Accelerating thought was an extremely dangerous act. Forcefully increasing one's thinking speed in a short time brought tearing pain and an unbearable strain on the body.
But for the Uchiha, it was not such a major problem.
As for bringing a child's thoughts up to run alongside his own, Madara did not think much of it at all.
He simply did not have much time left.
In a few more years, he would be dead.
The unlimited army he had built had already consumed an enormous amount of energy and planning, yet in the end it was still only a cover.
If he did not draw the attention of the powers above, how could he ever move against the chakra network and the souls drifting within it? His life was almost at its limit, but within that limit he had discovered a new possibility.
"You are Uchiha Obito, yes?"
"…Yeah. But who are you?"
"Who am I?"
The old man gave a low, humorless chuckle. He looked as if he wanted to say something grand and imposing, then seemed to lose interest halfway and let it go.
"I am… nobody, now," he said at last. "Who I am does not matter. What matters is this. Do you want to stand on the same side as them?"
"…"
He lifted a finger towards the sky.
Above them, Kakashi and Rin's duel played out, their figures facing one another beneath Obito's gaze.
Even though Obito could not hear their words and knew their conversation was not all pleasant, they still looked like they truly belonged to the same world.
He, on the other hand, only felt the pity of an outsider.
There were always kind people like that.
They would see a dying animal by the roadside, feel their heart wrench, bring it home, and care for it with all their warmth.
To Obito, he was no different from that stray.
In front of Kakashi, who excelled in everything, standing here and swearing he would become Hokage was like a pet desperately trying to impress its owner.
The pet itself might be acting from its own pure intentions, but in the owner's eyes, the animal was always "rescued," always playing the part of something to be cherished, something to be indulged.
Because that role had been decided for it from the very beginning.
A pet was not a person.
It could not stand as an equal.
People might care, they might share their daily lives, they might laugh, cry, and shower it with affection, but there was still a fundamental difference between people and pets.
Obito had tried very hard to look that gap in the eye, to acknowledge it.
But those two numbers still bore down on him like twin mountains.
Kakashi's number eleven. Rin's number one hundred and fourteen.
They made him feel what despair really looked like when it was turned into math.
The difference between tens of thousands and a little over one hundred was decisive.
And the step from a hundred something to near the top ten was another wall altogether.
For Kakashi, both distances might feel abstract, nothing special.
For Obito, they were the same, in the worst way.
Both were peaks he could never climb.
"I want to," he whispered. "Of course I want to. But no matter how hard I try, I just cannot do it."
He stood frozen in place, fists clenched so tight his nails dug into his palms. Pain welled in his chest as he poured the words out to the old man.
"I want to be as good as them. I want to be a genius. But I am not. I am just not, no matter what I do. I have tried everything. Kido, ninjutsu, taijutsu, sword techniques. I trained as hard as I could, and I still cannot reach them."
"Is it that they cannot be reached," Madara asked quietly, "or that you have never truly tried to understand and master them?"
"What is that supposed to mean?!"
"It is exactly what it sounds like." The old man's eyes gleamed in the frozen light of the network. "Do you want to stand in the heavens like they do? That is the only question I will ask you."
He looked at the boy, eyes red, breath coming faster and faster, and slowly smiled, cold and sharp.
"If you want to be like them," Madara said, "I can help you. All it requires is a small price."
His voice sank, becoming almost gentle.
"Are you willing to pay a small price," he asked, "for the right to stand shoulder to shoulder with them?"
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