"Hmph. Utter nonsense!"
If Hashirama Senju were here, he would have noticed that this man's voice sounded strikingly similar to his younger brother's.
At that moment, Pain fixed his Rinnegan squarely on Sasori, staring him down without blinking.
"Danna, don't suddenly say such strange things, hmm," Deidara hurriedly smoothed things over. "Whether it's true or not, we can just send someone to Konoha to check, right? Hmm."
He quickly changed the subject. "Still, I never thought Itachi Uchiha would actually betray the organization, hmm."
Kakuzu spoke with calm logic. "No matter where Itachi Uchiha goes, he won't return to Konoha. The reason he became a missing-nin back then was because he personally wiped out the Uchiha Clan."
"Eh?!" Deidara reacted exaggeratedly. "Really? That guy was that ruthless? I thought someone who'd do something like that would be more Kisame's type, hmm."
"Don't gossip about people behind their backs," Sasori said coolly.
"O-okay, I get it, hmm." Deidara, perhaps because he was younger, was still relatively obedient when it came to Sasori.
Sasori then turned to Pain. "Who are we sending to Konoha? Deidara and I could go." Or perhaps they should first head to Sunagakure and see what that old hag was planning.
"No," Pain rejected the idea. "You and Deidara are going to the Land of Wind. There's a mission there. Send Tobi to Konoha."
Deidara frowned. "Tobi? He's not an official member of the organization, is he?"
Sasori didn't answer.
In truth, if Pain hadn't brought up Tobi, Sasori wouldn't necessarily have linked him to the masked man who orchestrated the death of the Fourth Hokage.
After all, even though Tobi also wore a mask, his build, the style of his mask, and even his voice were completely different from the masked man who killed the Fourth Hokage. More importantly, Tobi had never displayed any special abilities, let alone the bizarre Space-Time Ninjutsu used by that masked man.
The Tobi who had been secretly eavesdropping in the background stretched lazily.
The next second, he completely dropped his dark, brooding image. Like an over-the-top clown, he suddenly popped out of the ground.
"Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Did someone summon Tobi?!" He twisted his body dramatically. "Do the senpai have a mission for Tobi~~? Tobi really wants to become a full-fledged member! How about…"
"Any one of you senpai can just hurry up and die already! Then the empty spot can go to Tobi, ahahahaha~~~"
Pain and Konan, who knew he was the one pulling the strings behind the scenes: "....."
Hidan and Kakuzu, who couldn't be bothered to deal with a clown and were already the so-called zombie duo: "...."
Deidara roared at him, "Don't curse us! And with that filthy mouth of yours, you're going to die sooner or later, hmm!"
Sasori, unusually composed, said, "If it's confirmed that Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki really did betray the organization, retrieve their rings. Then you can replace them and officially join."
"Eh—eh—eh—eh?!" Tobi flailed his arms exaggeratedly. "Sasori-senpai, did someone swap you out or something? You're being way too easygoing?!"
Deidara was about to snap back on Sasori's behalf when Sasori of the Red Sand spoke again.
"Speaking of which, there are still two important pieces of intelligence."
Hm? There was more?
Tobi immediately quieted down. Pain fell silent for a moment, then gestured for Sasori to continue.
Instead of answering directly, Sasori asked, "Why isn't Zetsu here today?"
"Sasori-senpai, you're such a dummy~ Zetsu-senpai hardly ever attends meetings anyway, right?"
Zetsu did, in fact, rarely attend meetings.
He usually reported intelligence to Pain ahead of time. With an information network spread across the entire shinobi world, he already had a general grasp of what everyone was doing, so Zetsu's presence at meetings wasn't particularly necessary.
Besides, these gatherings existed mainly to ensure that no one was betraying the organization. As long as Pain trusted someone, it wasn't a problem if they skipped meetings for long periods.
This time, Sasori didn't get annoyed at Tobi at all, acting as if he hadn't even noticed him.
"It's better that he's not here," Sasori said. "That intelligence concerns him."
For a brief instant, a flash of viciousness appeared in Tobi's eyes behind the mask. On the surface, however, he continued fooling around and asked what the intelligence was.
"The first important piece of intelligence," Sasori said, "is that soon, no later than five years from now, the shinobi world will face the Fourth Shinobi World War."
This conclusion was drawn from calculations based on the age of the future Naruto Uzumaki.
"A Shinobi World War…" Pain wasn't particularly surprised. If his plans continued as intended, it wasn't impossible that those dissatisfied with or fearful of him would launch an attack against Akatsuki.
By then, he would already possess a weapon forged from the nine tailed beasts. The shinobi world would pose no threat to him. He would make those ignorant shinobi experience true pain, and then…
…the shinobi world would finally usher in an unprecedented peace.
"Eeeeh~~ A shinobi world war sounds so scary~~" Tobi put on an over-the-top act, hugging himself and hiding behind Deidara as if terrified. "Deidara-senpai~ so scary! A shinobi world war is so scary~"
Deidara finally snapped and pulled out his clay. "To-bi!! Keep it up and I'll blow you to pieces!!"
"Ahhh! Deidara-senpai is even scarier than the Fourth Shinobi World War!!"
Kakuzu said impatiently, "You're loud."
Normally, Sasori would have stopped their antics, but Kakuzu noticed that today, Sasori hadn't even spared Tobi a single glance.
The seasoned schemer couldn't help but start thinking things over.
"What's the intel on Zetsu?" Hidan asked.
"Beware of a certain Uchiha…" Sasori deliberately dragged out the words. "Beware of Black Zetsu. Beware of Madara Uchiha."
"!!!!!"
Behind the mask, the Sharingan instantly contracted into a Mangekyō.
"Is Sasori-senpai getting senile?" Tobi laughed lightly. "Kakuzu-senpai just said the Uchiha Clan was wiped out by Itachi Uchiha, didn't he? Where would any 'certain Uchiha' come from now~~"
No matter how violently his emotions churned inside, the mask concealed everything.
"Uchiha…" Sasori continued.
"Obito."
This was a test.
It wasn't that Sasori had seen through Tobi's true identity. He was probing whether Tobi and Pain even knew the name Obito Uchiha. More importantly, Sasori suspected that Tobi's real identity was very likely Madara Uchiha.
"Obito Uchiha?" Pain showed no abnormal reaction. "Looks like Itachi Uchiha didn't do a thorough enough job when he exterminated the clan."
Neither he nor Konan had ever heard of Obito Uchiha. To them, he was probably just some weak Uchiha who never even awakened his Sharingan, too insignificant to be worth killing.
Masked Obito Uchiha: "..."
"That's all the intel," Sasori said. "We're leaving."
Pain nodded. "Dismissed."
Sasori and Deidara left. Hidan and Kakuzu followed. The only ones remaining were Tobi, Pain, and Konan.
"If Itachi and Kisame really did betray us," Konan said, "then bringing in new members becomes an urgent task."
"Let's verify the intel first," Pain said, turning to Tobi. "What do you think, Madara?"
The cheerful, clownish Tobi vanished completely.
Standing before Konan and Pain was a man with an overwhelming presence. Dark. Utterly unhinged.
His aura was identical to that of Obito Uchiha when he had impersonated Yagura Karatachi.
He was—
In this world, the Obito Uchiha consumed by despair.
"I'll depart for Konoha immediately," the adult Obito said, his face hidden behind an orange spiral mask.
"All right," Pain replied.
He and Konan vanished into the darkness of the meeting hall.
Left alone, the masked man slowly removed his mask, revealing the identity he had long since cast aside.
Obito Uchiha of Konoha.
The single remaining eye of the adult Obito was deep and pitch-black, staring into a darkness that seemed ready to swallow him whole.
Beware of Black Zetsu. Beware of Madara Uchiha…
Hah.
He had never truly trusted Madara, nor Black Zetsu, the one sent to monitor him.
In an instant, his black pupil turned crimson, sickle-shaped patterns blooming into his Mangekyō Sharingan.
A vortex formed in the void, pulling his entire body into Kamui's dimension.
He knew everything was slipping out of control. What he never expected was that he would encounter Team Minato again in Konoha.
That, however, would be several days later.
Even though Kamui greatly increased travel speed and efficiency, it wasn't an ability that allowed him to freely warp to any point in the shinobi world.
...
Elsewhere, there were originally less than two days left before the second stage of the Chūnin Exams concluded. Due to special circumstances, however, the proctors escorted each team that had already obtained both the Heaven Scroll and the Earth Scroll to the central tower of the Forest of Death, preventing any further battles exceeding jōnin level.
Naruto: ...
Gaara: ...
The ones escorting Naruto's team and Gaara's team were none other than Minato Namikaze and the adult Kakashi Hatake.
After learning the truth, Gaara remained silent, unable to recover from the shock. It turned out that everything back then had been a test of his capacity by his father. And Yashamaru didn't have to die…
"Gaara."
Before departing, the Fourth Kazekage looked at the son he had never truly trusted.
"I'm sorry about Yashamaru and Karura," he said sincerely. "As your father, I'm sorry for making you bear the burden of being a jinchūriki, and for never trusting you."
Although he had already received forgiveness from the future Gaara, after repeatedly experiencing journeys through time, he still desperately wanted forgiveness from the son standing before him.
As Kazekage, he had no shortage of unavoidable compromises, just like the Hokage.
But as a father, the damage he had inflicted on Gaara was immeasurable.
The Kazekage lowered his gaze. Standing before him was his youngest son.
Gaara's eyes were still unfocused, almost vacant.
Faced with his father's apology, he didn't even look at him. He turned and walked away.
Rasa watched Gaara's retreating figure and sighed helplessly. After bidding him farewell, Temari and Kankurō followed after Gaara.
Close behind them were the three children from Kakashi's team.
Naruto thought about it for a moment, then couldn't help adding one more comment.
"I think Gaara probably still hasn't forgiven you, Kazekage old man."
"Hm?" Rasa had been thinking the same thing.
Right after that, he heard the blond kid say, "If Gaara ever forgives you, he'll definitely punch you hard!"
With that, Naruto ran off in Gaara's direction.
Sakura and Sasuke followed close behind.
The Kazekage looked at Minato Namikaze, his expression clearly asking: Did he punch you too?
Minato's expression turned subtle, unsure how he was supposed to explain that.
He had originally planned to send Kakashi back first, but he was worried his dense disciple might start overthinking things again. In the end, he decided to escort Naruto to the tower first, then bring Kakashi back afterward.
With Naruto's identities as the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki and the Fourth Hokage's son exposed one after the other, even though there were no shinobi from Iwagakure or Kumogakure present, Minato still chose to personally escort Naruto.
Having seen everything this Naruto Uzumaki went through in the previous parallel world, he felt the same as the Fourth Kazekage—filled with pity and guilt toward this future son.
The other teams had already been led away by the proctors. As they left, the looks they cast at Naruto were still filled with shock and disbelief.
Even Shikamaru Nara, with an IQ over 200, would never have imagined that the idiot Naruto, who had been shunned by the entire village, was actually the Fourth Hokage's son.
And that question he had asked his father since childhood—why everyone rejected Naruto—
The real answer was that the village's great hero, the Fourth Hokage, had turned his newborn son into the vessel used to seal the Nine-Tails in order to protect the village.
The Third Hokage puffed on his pipe and muttered to himself, "Now that Minato is here, and Naruto's identity has been forced into the open, the people of the village can finally know that child is the son of a hero, and a hero who made sacrifices for the village himself."
...
On the way to the tower at the center of the Forest of Death, Sasuke suddenly remembered something and spoke up.
"Hey, Naruto. We've crossed worlds several times now. That should be related to your mission scroll, right? Open it and take a look."
Naruto froze for a second before it clicked.
The Kurama from the future parallel world had split off some chakra to help him defeat Gaara. That had been the reward from a mission. Based on his dad and Kakashi-sensei's analysis, only S-rank missions came with rewards that powerful.
Which meant he might have just completed another S-rank mission on his own!
Just as he was about to start bragging, Naruto reached into his ninja pouch…
"..."
"What is it, dead last?" Sasuke frowned. Seeing Naruto break out in a cold sweat, he suddenly had a bad feeling.
Naruto stiffly turned around, his movements creaking, and asked, "The scroll I gave you earlier… that was the Earth Scroll, right?"
Sasuke pulled out the Heaven Scroll he had exchanged for earlier, along with the Earth Scroll Naruto had given him later.
"What else did you think it was? Idiot."
Naruto suddenly stopped, almost causing Sakura and Sasuke to crash into him.
He immediately took off the ninja pouch strapped behind him and started rummaging through it frantically.
When everyone saw Naruto's hand come out through a torn hole at the bottom of the pouch…
Naruto's face went pale.
"The mission scroll… I think I lost it…"
"What?!"