Chapter 132: Nightmare
For Obito Uchiha, the days that followed were so good they felt unreal.
There was not much talk of ninjutsu or Kido. Most of the time, the three of them simply reminisced about the past. Once that invisible barrier between them was broken, their friendship and daily life slipped back into place as if it had never been disturbed.
It seemed Kakashi would not be leaving right after the Chunin Exams. There were new arrangements in Konoha, and this round of exams had been expanded. A larger team event and an individual tournament were scheduled for a month later.
None of that troubled the three of them.
Kakashi was one of the referees. Rin, ranked near the top one hundred, and Obito, who had now grasped the Resonance Technique, were almost guaranteed strong results in both team and solo battles.
Unlike the usual fixed squads of three, Rin and Obito did not have permanent teammates. Konoha could not rely on one team forever, and rotating lineups had become the norm.
In that atmosphere, Obito began living the life he had always dreamed of.
Or rather, this was the best version of the world he could imagine.
He would wake in the morning, wash up, then go to meet Rin. The two of them would head out together to drag Kakashi, who always looked half dead, from his dark little house. Then they would spend the day roaming through a Konoha that seemed to change a little every time they stepped outside.
Even Kakashi's father had returned to the world of the living. Obito knew that too. The man, always joking about something, for some reason had the characters "04" embedded in his teeth. With obvious delight, he shoved Kakashi toward them and pressed a generous pile of spending money into their hands so they could enjoy themselves all over the village.
They spent those days bouncing between the newest video games, the arcades, and the silly social games at the amusement park, throwing balls and competing for tiny prizes.
Every moment felt vivid.
Sometimes, Obito even thought, maybe he was imagining things, but because Kakashi kept his emotional distance from Rin, she often drifted closer to him instead. She would walk at his side, grumbling under her breath about how insensitive Kakashi was.
Even though Obito knew perfectly well that the girl he liked was only using him as a place to vent her feelings, he could not stop a quiet gratitude from rising in his chest.
Because he also knew Kakashi understood all of this.
Kakashi saw everything, yet he never pointed it out. He responded with this gentle, carefully measured distance instead.
Of course, Obito did not simply accept this happiness for free. He worked desperately to hold on to it.
His daily efforts far exceeded anything others could imagine.
In the boundless world of the network, he spent what felt like endless time absorbing the knowledge and techniques the old man passed down to him. Space time ninjutsu, elemental techniques, chakra control, all the things that seemed as natural as breathing to that man.
Considering the old man's identity, it was not all that surprising.
He was a man who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with the God of Shinobi, a legend in flesh. In modern times, he was like a second Aizen.
Kakashi had received personal guidance from Aizen Sousuke.
So what was wrong with Obito being trained by a legendary ninja?
Every night stretched into what felt like months.
Like a sponge, Obito absorbed everything the old man gave him, refusing to be left behind, struggling to break apart the invisible shell around his heart.
After just one week of this grinding schedule, he was able to confront Rin in defensive and pursuit drills using only his own strength.
Seeing her surprised expression, hearing the joy in her voice when she praised how much he had grown, Obito felt that all the pain, all the exhaustion, had been worth it.
Even though every day ended with splitting headaches, as if someone were prying open his skull, and countless fragments of knowledge and ideas roared through his mind, Obito did not fall.
He used stamina pills and chakra seals to force his body to endure. With barely one hour of real sleep a day, he patched up his physical fatigue and pushed himself forward again.
Mental suffering meant nothing to him.
As long as he could stand beside them, Obito felt there was no hardship he could not endure.
What truly frightened him was something else entirely.
During that single hour of sleep, he kept seeing the same nightmare, over and over, until he woke up screaming.
"Nightmare? Hah. It is probably just a hallucination," the old man scoffed during one of their stolen training sessions between frozen instants of time. His expression bent into an inexplicable smile. "You have gained strength too quickly, that is all."
He waved a hand as if flicking away an insect.
"There is an old story about a fool who suddenly stumbles on a mountain of gold. It is a gift from heaven, yet he spends every day terrified that others will come to rob or kill him. In the end he dies on top of that mountain, and all that is left of him are bones.
"In the end, that is all it is."
"Is that so…?" Obito asked quietly.
"What else could it be? Dreams are nothing more than scenes of life and death. Am I wrong?"
"No…"
"Such childish sentiment."
The old man's sneer cut across his thoughts.
Obito realized he might be thinking too much.
He had heard similar parables before, and in a sense, he had lived that kind of life himself.
He used to be a nobody.
Back then, it had been difficult just to talk to them. He knew that he would never walk the same path.
But now?
Was he still a loser?
He was being honed by Madara Uchiha into a formidable shinobi.
In a single week, his strength had increased by leaps and bounds. His ninjutsu and taijutsu were becoming respectable.
If he had taken things seriously from childhood, if he had trained like this from the very start, perhaps he might already have been able to stand beside them.
Even so, the more he thought about the nightmare, the colder he felt.
Not because it was strange, but because it felt too real.
As if he had truly experienced it once already.
In the dream, he found himself in a gloomy underground space.
He, Kakashi, and Rin were all there, though he did not know how they had arrived. After a brief survey of the surroundings, Kakashi's expression suddenly changed.
Countless blurred shapes erupted from the darkness.
White monsters swarmed out from the shadows, overwhelming Kakashi for an instant.
One of them lunged toward Rin.
Obito knew he should move.
He knew he should step forward to protect her.
But in that dream, he did nothing.
He did not even intend to save her.
It was as if, in that nightmare, he had decided beforehand that Rin had to die.
Layers of seals and traps pinned Kakashi down, buying only a few seconds before he could break free.
Within those few seconds, Obito drove his hand straight into Rin's chest.
He could not forget her face.
There had been shock there, and unwillingness, and surprise. But there had been no blame for him at all.
With the last of her strength, she had reached up and touched his cheek.
Then, in the dream, he had ripped Rin's heart from her chest without hesitation, crushed it in his hand, and turned to face Kakashi, who was screaming as he tore apart his bonds.
The dream ended as he confronted Kakashi, the two of them clashing in a blur of rage and grief.
On every level, the scene was absurd.
The three of them always took safe routes. There was no reason they would suddenly appear in some hidden underground space.
And Obito knew that under no circumstances would he ever attack Rin.
Yet the sensation of his hand piercing flesh, the hot weight of a beating heart in his palm, the spray of blood, Kakashi's scream, and Rin's voiceless desire to save him even as she died, all of it was too vivid.
It felt like a memory from another timeline, bleeding into this one.
"Looks like you are not really paying attention to your studies, are you?"
"Huh? No, no, that is not it. I will keep working hard. Really. Please do not think I am slacking off."
"It is not that I plan to abandon you."
The old man glanced around at the slowly moving rubble and the targets scattered across the training ground. The frozen shards of earth were beginning to drift again, the air itself loosening. His voice carried a helpless edge.
"Your current state just is not suited for learning. Look around. Even space time is starting to slip back into motion."
He tapped his staff lightly against the ground.
"You are still just a child. When something like this crashes into your life all at once, it is normal for your thoughts to get tangled. So today and tomorrow, I will not teach you anything. Adjust your mindset yourself.
"After all, you are my successor. I do not want my heir to turn paranoid over a dream."
"It is fine. I can keep going. I can still learn…"
"Are you trying to teach me how to handle my own affairs, boy?"
The old man's eyes narrowed.
"The way you are talking now only proves how lacking in confidence you are. Take a couple of days off."
Before Obito could protest again, the aged figure vanished from the training space, and at the same time kicked him out of the network entirely.
The next instant, Obito was staring up at the cracked ceiling of his real home, breath caught in his throat.
The familiar smell of old wood and dust pressed down on him.
His mind felt hollow.
"…Huh?" he muttered to the empty room. "What am I supposed to do now?"
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