Sasuke's eyes widened. "Obito awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan?! Didn't Madara Uchiha say his body couldn't handle it?!"
"I awakened mine at thirteen as well," Itachi Uchiha said flatly. "If you count it properly, I was even younger than he is now. The conditions for awakening the Mangekyō have nothing to do with age."
Sasuke stared at the man in front of him, the one he was supposed to call his brother. He had once suspected that Itachi was being manipulated by Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan, but both Itachi himself and the Fourth Hokage had denied it.
"Then what is the condition for awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan?!"
Itachi looked at his younger brother. In Sasuke's eyes, he saw a faint trace of pleading. Deep down, Itachi loved Sasuke more than anyone, and in the end, he told him the truth.
"Despair."
"What?!!"
"The pain of approaching despair," Itachi said. "Self-doubt. That is how the Sharingan evolves."
...!
Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, as well as young Kakashi Hatake and Rin Nohara, all froze in shock.
Rin's heart clenched painfully. She knew.
She knew how deeply Obito had hated the Masked Man when he witnessed Kushina and Minato-sensei on the brink of death. She knew how desperately Obito had wished to become stronger, strong enough to defeat the Masked Man, when Itachi was under that man's control.
Ever since arriving in this world, Obito had trained harder than ever before, pushing himself far beyond his limits. All so he could grow strong enough to help Minato-sensei and Itachi defeat the Masked Man.
Just the day before, Obito had excitedly talked with her and Kakashi about the abilities his Mangekyō Sharingan might have, declaring with absolute conviction—
"Don't worry, Rin! I'll protect you, Kakashi, and Minato-sensei's whole family!!"
"If that Masked Man dares show up, I, Obito Uchiha-sama, will beat him flat!!"
…
And yet, barely one day after that vow—
Obito learned the truth. That he himself was the Masked Man.
That level of pain and despair forced Obito, not yet even fourteen, to forcibly awaken his Mangekyō Sharingan…
Sakura noticed Rin lowering her head, likely crying in silence. As the only one not deeply entangled in the vortex of hatred, and as a fellow girl, she quietly stayed by Rin's side, offering wordless comfort.
Sasuke still couldn't accept that Obito was the Masked Man.
"How did you know Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan ability is the same as the Masked Man's?" he asked.
Young Kakashi looked drained, his voice barely above a whisper. "When I tried to grab him just now… his body turned intangible."
Intangible?!
The memory of the Nine-Tails incident flashed through their minds, the night they had confronted the Masked Man together with the Uchiha from that parallel world. Intangibility was one of the Masked Man's abilities.
Phasing through attacks, and pulling his own body into the vortex of his right eye. That was precisely the Mangekyō Sharingan ability of the Masked Man.
"So where is Obito now?" Naruto asked.
"He left," Itachi Uchiha replied. "He went through the wall."
Sasuke snapped, "You just watched him leave?! What if the Masked Man—"
"What if Obito Uchiha from this world finds him?!" Sasuke corrected himself.
"Even the Uzumaki Clan's barrier has no effect on Obito Uchiha's intangibility," Itachi said.
In other words, even if they caught him, there was no way to imprison him.
Rin quickly spoke up, "You don't need to worry about that. Minato-sensei placed the Flying Thunder God mark on him."
"What?!" Sasuke exclaimed. "The Fourth Hokage-sama already knew the Masked Man was Obito Uchiha?!"
Young Kakashi shook his head. "Minato-sensei placed the Flying Thunder God mark on all of us. It was to prevent a situation like yours, where no one could arrive in time to save us."
"He didn't know for certain, but he had his suspicions," Itachi Uchiha said. "After returning from the founding era of Konoha, Minato-sama spoke privately with me and Kakashi-senpai about the Masked Man's identity. At the time, he already had two guesses."
"Two?"
"One was Shisui Uchiha," Itachi said. "The other was Obito Uchiha."
Minato Namikaze's voice came from outside.
Moments later, everyone saw him walk in, followed by Adult Kakashi Hatake, whose face was filled with quiet melancholy.
The moment he saw Minato, Naruto blurted out, "Dad! My mission scroll—"
"The Third Hokage has already sent people to pursue Kabuto Yakushi," Minato Namikaze said as he walked in and took a seat. "But he's extremely cunning. For now, all we can do is wait for news."
"Minato-sensei, Obito—" Rin started.
"Don't worry," Minato said calmly. "I can still sense the Flying Thunder God mark on him. That means he hasn't gone too far from Konoha."
He paused briefly. "However, the mark appears and disappears intermittently. I suspect his dōjutsu allows him to fully become intangible for short periods of time."
Zabuza Momochi leaned against the doorway with a snort. "Hmph! I should've realized sooner. Someone who could disguise himself as Yagura Karatachi that perfectly… who else could it be but that bastard Masked Man?!"
"Hearing that, it seems I was fooled by him as well back during Konoha's founding era," Kisame Hoshigaki said with a harsh, grating laugh. He was referring to the time Obito had impersonated Yagura Karatachi to meet him during that era.
Young Kakashi Hatake shot the shark-like man a brief glance, then turned to Minato.
"I don't understand, Minato-sensei!"
"We all know what kind of person Obito is!" he said, his voice tight. "He's stupid, sure, but he works harder than anyone. He wants to look cool and make a name for himself, but he ends up embarrassing himself every single time…"
Even the silver-haired boy himself didn't understand why he knew so much about that idiot Obito.
When Minato looked at this student, pain flickered in his eyes.
After losing his father in that way at such a young age, Obito—who had constantly watched him, provoked him, and challenged him—had unknowingly become a way for this child to escape the shadows of his childhood.
It was just that fate's compass sometimes truly felt as though it was deliberately mocking him…
"I don't understand why Obito from this world would become someone like the Masked Man!" young Kakashi continued. "He even caused Minato-sensei's family to die, and he was completely indifferent to the Uchiha Clan's massacre!"
"..."
"Because Obito loved Rin," a voice suddenly said. "He loved her more than anything."
The one who spoke was Adult Kakashi Hatake, who had remained silent up until now.
Everyone turned to look at him, the elite jōnin of Konoha known as the Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake.
Rin Nohara's eyes were still slightly red and swollen from crying earlier.
She looked at the adult Kakashi, waiting for him to continue.
She could vaguely sense Obito's feelings for her as well. It wasn't that she disliked Obito. It was just that, at only thirteen years old, she still couldn't clearly understand her own true emotions.
Moreover, the bond between herself, Obito, and Kakashi felt more like family. At times, she felt that Obito's feelings toward her weren't all that different from the feelings he had toward Kakashi. She was afraid that if she, Obito, or Kakashi misunderstood those feelings, it would destroy what they shared. Because of that, she pretended not to notice and never responded to Obito.
Adult Kakashi lifted the forehead protector covering his left eye, revealing the vermilion Sharingan beneath.
His gloved hand gently covered that eye.
"Obito sacrificed himself to save me during the Kannabi Bridge mission. He gave me his Sharingan and acknowledged me as an outstanding jōnin."
These were things everyone already knew. In Adult Kakashi's understanding, the Obito of this parallel world had already died, his name forever engraved on the Memorial Stone.
But what he said next stunned everyone present.
"I promised Obito that no matter what happened, no matter what, I would protect Rin for him."
"But…"
"Rin died by my Lightning Release Chidori."
"!!!!!"
The moment Adult Kakashi finished speaking, everyone's expressions changed drastically.
Especially Young Kakashi. Unlike his adult self, he bore no scar running through his eyelid and cheek. His pupils were still pitch-black, never replaced by that deep crimson eye.
Sakura stared in disbelief. "That's impossible… How could Kakashi-sensei kill Rin, his own teammate?"
"Don't joke around!" Naruto shouted angrily. "Kakashi-sensei cares more about his comrades than anyone else! There's no way he'd kill a teammate, dattebayo!"
"Naruto." Minato pressed a hand to Naruto's shoulder and gently shook his head.
Sasuke also looked at Kakashi in shock. He still remembered the fight against Zabuza on the bridge in the Land of Waves, when Kakashi had sworn he would never let another comrade die in front of him again.
Rin reacted faster than Young Kakashi and the others. She caught the difference in Adult Kakashi's words. He had said she "died by Lightning Release Chidori," not that he had killed her.
…
She corrected Sakura softly and looked at Adult Kakashi.
"Killing the me of this world wasn't your intention, was it, Kakashi?"
'Kakashi, I can't go back to Konoha! Kill me now!'
'What are you saying?! Rin! I promised Obito I'd protect you no matter what!'
'Listen to me, Kakashi! I can feel something inside my body! That thing will definitely harm Konoha! I was used!'
'Stop talking! Run! I'll hold off the Kirigakure ninja!'
'Kakashi!'
'Ox, Hare, Monkey… Lightning Release: Chidori!'
Pssh—!
'…!'
'Ka… Kakashi…'
…
As Adult Kakashi recalled those memories, exhaustion and pain were written all over his face.
"I… don't know," he said quietly.
He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't know. He couldn't understand it at all.
Why had Rin chosen to die by his hand?
"I have some information about this," Minato Namikaze suddenly said. "When Kakashi first told me about this in the Land of Waves, I already had my doubts. After returning to Konoha, I asked the Third Hokage about it."
Everyone's attention immediately turned to Minato.
"According to the Konoha ninja who found Kakashi back then," Minato continued, "there were only dozens of Kirigakure assassins' corpses at the scene. Their deaths were brutal and should have been the work of a single person. And they weren't killed by Lightning Release…"
...
"What?!"
Zabuza Momochi looked visibly shocked. "Dozens of Kirigakure assassins?! Taken out by one person?! How is that even possible?!"
"If it wasn't Lightning Release, then what technique was used?" Itachi Uchiha asked. "If it were intangibility combined with weapon attacks, it shouldn't have left such clear traces proving it was the work of a single individual."
Minato Namikaze glanced at Kisame Hoshigaki. Seeing that he likely already knew, Minato chose not to hide it any longer.
"Because… that person used Wood Release."
"Wood Release?!"
The group, unaware that the Masked Man could use Wood Release, was clearly shaken.
"Isn't Wood Release a unique ability of Hashirama-sama?" Sakura asked.
"White Zetsu components can neutralize Hashirama's cells and heal the Mangekyō Sharingan," Sasuke said, connecting two pieces of information he had learned during the founding era of Konoha.
Naruto, completely lost by the complexity of it all, grabbed his head and shouted,
"What is even going on anymore, dattebayo?! If Obito is the Masked Man, then what are we supposed to do about our SSS-rank mission?!"
After all, Obito's SSS-rank mission was—
To kill the Masked Man.
At that moment, Obito Uchiha was clutching his mission scroll tightly as he used his intermittent intangibility to travel all the way to a river far outside Konoha.
Earlier, lost and overwhelmed, he had charged forward with his head down. Without even realizing it, he had bypassed Konoha from the Hatake old residence and ended up on the far side of the village, at the Naka River.
If his ninja pouch hadn't suddenly thrown him off balance and sent him crashing down onto the ground, he might not have stopped at all.
The gold coins scattered across the riverbank made Obito freeze in place for a long time.
His numb mind took several turns before he finally remembered to check his mission scroll.
Only D-rank missions paid out real, tangible mission money.
The moment his eyes landed on it—
[Mission Rank: SSS]
[Mission Content: Kill—the Masked Man.]
—the words were painfully glaring.
The blood tears that had been flowing from his eyes mixed with ordinary tears and spilled down his face.
When he had carved his name onto the Memorial Stone, Obito had never imagined that such a careless act would actually come true.
But this SSS-rank mission… did it really mean he was supposed to kill himself?
He had only just started getting along a little better with that idiot Kakashi, and he still hadn't worked up the courage to confess to Rin…
Crying as he continued to unroll the scroll and look further down, Obito never could have imagined that the mission which had actually earned him the mission money was—
[Mission Rank: D]
[Mission Content: Confess to Rin Nohara.]
[Mission Status: Completed.]
"..."